Show Me The Place

Apocalyptic futures surround us. In films, books and in news feeds, we are subjected to a barrage of end-time possibilities. Award-winning writer Hedley Twidle, in quixotic mood, sets out to snatch utopia from the jaws of dystopia. Whether embarking on a bizarre quest to find Cecil Rhodes's missing nose (sliced off the bust of the Rhodes Memorial) or cycling the Scottish islands with a couple of squabbling anarchists; whether learning to surf (much too late) in the wild, freezing waters off the Cape Peninsula or navigating the fraught polities of a Buddhist retreat centre, the author explores forgotten utopias, intentional communities and islands of imagination with curiosity, hope and humour. Ranging from the science fiction of Ursula Le Guin to the 'living laboratory' of Auroville in south India, Show Me the Place investigates the deep human desire to imagine alternatives to what we take as normal or inevitable.

HEDLEY TWIDLE is a writer, teacher and researcher based at UCT. His essay collection Firepool: Experiences in an Abnormal World, was published by Kwela in 2017. Experiments with Truth, a study of life writing and the South African transition, appeared in the African Articulation series from James Currey in 2019. His work has appeared in international publications such as the New Statesman, the Financial Times and Harper's magazine.