NOURISHMENT AND TROUBLE

I GREW UP IN A TYPICAL 1970S SUBURBAN JOHANNESBURG HOME.

It had slasto on the stoep, which would shed dusty grey flakes of heel-slicing beastliness, and pine cladding in the lounge in mustard-smear-yellow. Its train-like layout resulted in a long passage, leading from the living room at one end to the master bedroom at the other. In the daytime this passage was brilliant for galloping along and holding various sorts of races, but at night it was a terrifying gauntlet to be