When I was a student in the 1960s I wouldn't shop in Sainsbury's because they sold South African wine. After I married, my father-in-law in South Africa said: 'You've got to live here before you can understand what Africans are like.' I was shocked that anyone could talk about people like that. But I've grown to understand, now I've been living here.

Mike is a retired GP from the UK who moved to Cape Town with his South African wife and child eight years ago. They were going for a short stay at Farm 215, an eco-friendly country-house 'retreat' two hours away from the city, and offered to drive me there and back. (The quotes that follow are all from that trip.)

LRB 3 July 2008 | PDF Download