For over a century, one of the most important salmon runs in the United States has had to contend with historic dams – and now four of them are set to be taken down.“My great uncle and my grandma and my great grandparents and, I'm sure, their great…

The rebirth of a historic river

TONGUES editor Alexander Matthews sat down with acclaimed Australian writer Christos Tsiolkas in Melbourne while he was working on his most recent novel, “Damascus“, which was published late last year. Over coffee and white wine in a Fitzroy cafe’s…

Interview with Christos Tsiolkas

There has been a spike in poaching in many countries during lockdown – as well as being bad for wildlife, that raises our risk of exposure to new viruses.
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Pictures of smog-free skies and videos of lions and hyenas strutting across fairways could…

The wild animals at risk in lockdown

 For a city with such a delicious and diverse dining scene, the elusiveness of top-notch Far East Asia-inspired cuisine in Cape Town is as mysterious as it is frustrating. Thankfully two very different establishments provide a welcome antidote…

Bao Down and Hesheng serve up delicious Far East Asia-inspired cuisine

In South Africa, there used to be a thicket the size of Cyprus that could sink large quantities of carbon and create a cooler microclimate. These people are trying to grow it back.
“We last had proper rain in 2014,” winemaker Margaux Nel tells me.…

How shrubs can help solve climate change

With conservation sitting uneasily alongside redress in SA, attempts to ensure restitution for communities evicted from their land under apartheid – government-owned and private – have met with mixed success Phinda Private Game Reserve in northern…

Land: SA’s conservation conundrum

WORDS BY ALEXANDER MATTHEWS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAELA VERITY It is a silvery, windy day, not cold, in Sea Point. Damon Galgut has let me into his flat. I glance around at the clutter and the drying laundry while he makes me tea. It is clear that…

Novel Questions: An Interview with Damon Galgut

Acclaimed poet and novelist Finuala Dowling’s employment at the University of Cape Town over the last several tumultuous years has provided fertile material for her captivating fifth work of fiction, Okay, Okay, Okay.At its core are two shocking…

BOOK REVIEW: Finuala Dowling brings wit, warmth and nuance to campus politics

In spite of months ago having abandoned social media and deleted my phone’s news apps, I still seem to be bombarded by dispiriting news. In my birth country, South Africa, I only so much as have to glance at the front of a newspaper to see headlines…

How to Stop Wasting So Much Time on Instagram and Despairing About the News

 Surfers at Cox Bay beach, Tofino. Photo by&nbsp;Shlomo Shalev&nbsp;on&nbsp;Unsplash Seattle, my first taste of the Pacific Northwest, was a good place to start: a sprawling, vibrant, multicultural city surrounded by water. Given that…

Whale-Watching and Wild Salmon: Adventures in the Pacific Northwest

 “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” is a startlingly powerful portrait of the immigrant experience — and an unflinching dissection of tragedy and trauma, large and small.Every so often you read a novel that leaves you a little breathless.…

Is This the Most Brilliant Debut Novel of the Year?

 Caribbean Island is a fun, flavour-filled add-on to your itinerary if you happen to be visiting Central or North America Less than an hour after touching down at Montego Bay, I was experiencing a rather startling sense of déjà&nbsp;vu.…

Jamaica: tropical beaches, feisty food and cannabis galore

I look up nervously from my spot on the terrace of the Mount Nelson Hotel. It is cloudy and the table is speckled slightly by rain. But it is not just the weather that concerns me. Interviewing a favourite author poses a terror greater than when you…

Booker Winner Alan Hollinghurst On Tennyson and Taking Ecstasy

The late Nadine Gordimer discusses her final novel, banned books and her life’s big regret.I am standing in a quiet street in Johannesburg’s Parktown, outside high white walls, topped by mean black electric wiring. There is no doorbell; just two…

Lessons From a Nobel Laureate​: An Interview with the Late Novelist Nadine Gordimer

 A number of tourism companies are playing a far greater role in African conservation As dusk settles over the Okavango Delta, we spot him ambling through the grass — vast and grey, like a battleship at sea. He looks up, spots us, and…

Safari operators step up conservation efforts

 The newest and most exclusive lodge in northern Kruger National Park is a bush-lover’s paradise Some places — perhaps most places — slide past you as soon as you leave them; the impressions they leave are slippery and fading. Others…

Unwind as time slows down at Pel’s Post in Pafuri

 Set deep in the Manyoni Game Reserve, Thuleni Homestead will reward big-game watchers and also those who simply wish to do nothing As much as I love the bush, I find most safaris exhausting. No matter how decadent the food or luxurious…

Hidden gem offers safaris at your own pace

Eswatini’s new finance minister is trying to put the country on a new economic path. He may meet resistance along the way Eswatini finance minister Neal Rijkenberg didn’t mince his words when he delivered his maiden budget late last month.…

Eswatini budgets for change

From grand architecture, melodious symphonies to drool-worthy cuisine, this compact Portuguese city has it all Tourist hordes are increasingly inundating Lisbon — and for good reason. It is rich in food, culture, history and selfie backdrops…

Porto — where the hordes are smaller and the delights huge

 Cycling offers a novel way to explore the city where the Wall provides a constant reminder of history and the surprisingly warm lakes refreshment after a sweaty workout So much has happened in Berlin. Once the epicentre of an ill-fated…