Woman Zone CT

10/10/2026

is about taking 'Steps for Saartjie', walking, cycling, running or swimming in solidarity with survivors of GBV and the Saartjie Baartman Centre throughout the month of October. To join the movement and find out more, check their website www.blocktober.co.za

Gifts from a Birthday Block Written by Nancy Richards There’s nowhere to hide in a Blockhouse photoshoot – especially when everyone in the...

09/10/2026

Heart gladdens when connections are made, books and care shared! At The Women's Library today, big thank you to Katia Nunes who, following their meeting at the Open Book Festival, brought in bagsful of titles donated by the book club for of the library in Gugs. Book blessings both xx

09/10/2026

Wonderful news...Respect Navi Pillay. Peace Be! Xx

This year's laureate has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted," said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

08/10/2026

WZ BOOK REVIEW The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (Penguin) Reviewer: Nancy Richards
As the winner, amongst other awards, of the Women’s Prize for fiction 2026, this title hardly needs me to recommend it – but, I do have to say, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans touched me enormously. Firstly, because it’s written in ‘letters’, and is there not something completely disarming about a piece that starts: “Dear so and so” and ends with “warm regards”, “sincerely” or even just “love”. There is no voice that compares to the one a person employs when writing to another person – it’s so very direct, and personal – even if it’s a cross letter. Interesting is that author Virginia Evans has owned to having been inspired to use the ‘letter’ or ‘epistolary’ device by Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road – published back in in 1971 which tells the story of a love affair between a lady and a shop, in letters.
But unlike Hanff’s mono-focused bestseller (it was republished five times in as many years and has been in print for five decades), Evans’s protagonist Sybil – the correspondent in question – writes to and about many people, in so doing revealing different layers of her rather introspective life and spikey personality. There’s the issue of her past career as a lawyer, her ex-husband, her children – including the one she lost - her hitherto unexplored identity as an adoptee, her failing eyesight, reading habits, relationships - in writing and in the flesh - with a number of people, including the two chaps that ‘fancy’ her as well as some real-life writers (Ann Patchett and Joan Didion). It’s all wonderful stuff made so real by being in her very own ‘sincerely’ voice.
Apparently, it was also inspired by a chance meeting with a slightly eccentric older woman, and young as she is herself, at 40 Evans has convincingly worked her way into the mind of a woman almost twice her age. But what I also found remarkable, is that, given her insightful writing style, and yet again, her relative youth, is that she had previously written no fewer than seven novels, none of which got to see the light of day. Anyhoo, you probably know all this because it’s been widely recorded and the book much reviewed and recommended, but at the very least I wanted to say, that this book will surely make you want to sit down a write a letter – to anyone.

08/10/2026

Reminder to book for Woman Zone Book Club with visiting UK author Louisa Treger - https://mailchi.mp/248dcae60bb3/book-now-for-woman-zone-book-club-october-10-from-1030-to-1230-with-louisa-treger-13884836

07/10/2026

My grasp of Afrikaans is baie min, but the body language, facial expressions and empathy of the two performers in 'Kom Fietna saam Marildea' speak volumes. Such a very touching and authentic piece of theatre-storytelling. One shouldn't be deceived though by the simplicity of the characters they portray, because award winners both, writer Gaireyah Fredericks and actor Celeste Matthews Wannenburgh bring much understanding, personal experience and wisdom to the stage. Blessings both. On at the The Baxter till Oct 17. X

06/10/2026

So, What is the EVERYWOMAN project, where is it going and where could it go? These were the questions we asked at a think tank at The Women's Library on Saturday where we invited international quilter and teacher Felicityann Khan and Dr Elbe Coetsee, author and founder of the Mogalakwena Gallery and Craft Art Development Foundation to share their experience. Take a listen here https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Ra1IJtmtFvj158RdGuCOs And if you'd like to be part of the next steps, join us for the planning session on November 8th. or watch this space. Beryl Eichenberger Theresa Smith Artscape

03/10/2026

WOMAN ZONE BOOK CLUB Review:
My Best Friend ED by Katherine Luden (Reach) Reviewer: Nancy Richards
When you think how food can be a weapon in so many ways, it was interesting to hear the manager of a large and popular southern suburbs bookstore say that there were few, if any books at all, on eating disorders on their shelves. This at the launch of Katherine Luden’s 'My Best Friend ED'. But should you be looking for one, this title is NOT the definitive handbook on causes, effects and cures for anorexia or indeed any sort of eating disorder. As someone concerned with issues of mental health, the author didn’t want to be handing out ‘tips’ of any sort. It is rather one woman’s hard, long lived experience and problematic ‘relationship’ with her ‘ED’.
Katherine was about fifteen when it became obvious there was a problem. But as anyone who has ever suffered from anorexia, or borne witness as a family member, it doesn’t just announce itself one day, nor does it just quietly go away and close the door. It leaves what she calls ‘consequences’. It took approximately fifteen years before Katherine was on a road to recovery, a bumpy road at that. This is the second iteration of her ED memoir – in the first she says, ‘I poured out my rawest insides, unfiltered pain and all…’ but, she continues ‘I needed time…to build the strength to share without shattering.’ So this second attempt is still raw, but also, surprisingly, funny. She concludes with a chapter called ‘How I Fired my Inner Lunatic and Hired a Functioning Adult’ and very finally one on ‘All My Former Selves’. An eating disorder can be a lonely journey, but thoughtfully she’s dedicated this book to her parents, her husband and her daughter ‘for always loving me, despite me.’

01/10/2026

WOMAN ZONE: Book Review
Title: OCEAN; Author: Polly Clark; Publisher: Lightning
I have a healthy respect for the sea and those who sail the waters are, in my opinion, enormously brave. Definitely not for me! So when this book crossed my desk I was not immediately drawn to it – what did I know about sailing (other than cruises – presumably safer) and the language that went with it? Ocean by Polly Clark is not just about the sea but about that ocean of emotions that trauma can cause in our lives, that can throw us off course, send us on an uncharted voyage that plumbs the depths of all that you have held sacred. It is one of those imaginative stories that, whilst seeming to be unrealistic, could so well exist with the brave-hearts.
The story starts on dry land - Helen lives in London with her loving husband Frank and their son Nicholas. She and Frank met on a sailing expedition on the Innisfree. She’s pregnant with her second child when she gets caught in a terrorist explosion on the Underground. A stranger, James, rescues her. But the trauma changes her life forever, she becomes obsessed with finding James. Her once stable life is tossed around as she loses her grip on reality. Her life is fractured, turbulent, the certainty of her love drowned under the weight of her experience. In a bid to save their marriage Frank suggests selling up, taking their son and foster daughter Sindi on a trip across the Atlantic on the boat where they first fell in love.
There are literally heart stopping moments, stomach-clenching events, terror, tenderness and tenacity. Clark weaves the terminology of water, sailing, the ocean throughout her prose, adding a rhythm that grips, rising and falling, releasing a tide of emotions. Almost as merciless as the sea itself, Clark sweeps the reader away, charting depths of relationships, lives caught in currents too strong to be beaten. Although sometimes I was a little skeptical of the plot twists, it’s a strong story, Clark is not afraid to face that oncoming wave. Ocean will immerse you.