That’s that for this year

I wonder who drives this event – when you think of the multiple panellists, venues and bookings that have to be coordinated, it’s no mean feat to pull it off without any apparent glitches. And there’s such great attention to detail, right down to the clever titles for every panel discussion.

The stand-out event (from those I attended) was ‘We Don’t Need No Education’ – and the venue was the school hall! Did that just happen by chance? The only problem really was that there just wasn’t enough time to hear fully from the panellists, who had informed, interesting comments. Graeme Bloch used the opportunity to punt his book, The Toxic Mix, which does sound like a good read for anyone interested in the issue of education in SA. The point was made that we shouldn’t wait for government to solve problems (not that it isn’t their responsibility too), but do whatever we can ourselves: put pressure on government, support teachers – and demand the best from them, and perhaps help if we are in a position to do that.
 
I had a vested interest in ‘Reviewing the reviewers’, which was facilitated by the genial Jenny Crwys-Williams. I wanted to know what super-reviewers like Michiel Heyns have to say on the art of book reviewing – so that our reviews in Fairlady are as good as they can be. But since Jenny’s beat is radio, as is panelist Karabo Kgoleng’s, much of the discussion was irrelevant in terms of what I hoped to get out of it. And the other two, Michiel Heyns and Rachelle Greeff write for and edit the books pages of newspapers. And that’s also an entirely different game – Heyns mostly writes 900-word reviews for newspapers – and we just don’t have that much space. (We think those reviews are just too long anyway!)
 
So perhaps you can let me know: what exactly is it that makes a book review great?