After his father’s violent death on a hot November day in the droughtstricken Free State, a young man leaves the derelict family farm with no plan, and with no way of knowing that his life will soon be changed for ever by two strangers he encounters on his journey south: a mute little girl who bears a striking resemblance to his late niece, and a troubled lawyer who detests the Cape wine estate she’s inherited from a father she despised.

Set in South Africa against the backdrop of a country in flux, The Safest Place You Know is a powerful story, rendered in meticulously crafted, lyrical prose, about redemption and recovery, and what it means to carry the past with you.

When Doctor Thomas Browne accepts the role of both inquisitor and witness in one of England’s last witch trials, he embarks on what his biographer later calls ‘the most culpable and stupid action of his life’.

In Bury St Edmonds, 1662, two widows are charged with acts of witchcraft. Doctor Browne is known as a philosopher, natural scientist, logician and medical doctor, yet despite his best efforts, the trial hinges on the ad-missibility of ‘spectral evidence’: the accused women are deemed to have the ability to exploit their victims through dreams. This will set a legal precedent for the infamous Salem witch trials in Massachusetts thirty years later.

Conflicted by his deeply held religious beliefs and his confidence in the validity of emerging scientific methods, Browne is left to ponder the true nature of culpability – and whether the most insidious evil is, in fact, that which we carry within.

Mark Winkler’s novel is a wry and insightful glimpse into the limits of reason, the patriarchal need to control every aspect of womanhood, and our ongoing preoccupation with reputation.

When novelist Charlie Wasserman’s wife Sascha divorces him, he finds a box of letters among the belongings his investment-banker wife did not care to remove when she signed over their house and asked never to be contacted by him again. Written between 1940 and 1944, the letters expose a love affair between Sascha’s grandfather, Theo, a forty-something lawyer, and Flora, a much younger journalist. The letters spark an idea for a novel, even though Sascha had, via her lawyers, asked Charlie to destroy them. All the while the story of Theo and Flora’s lives unfurls, always against the backdrop of the 1940s and what it meant for Jewish people across the world. Theo & Flora is a delight to read: skilfully constructed, fluidly written, witty and entertaining, with, at the same time, a poignant undertow of sorrow and loss. The writer has a keen eye for detail and a droll way with language, creating a novel that is often laugh-out-loud funny, yet the humour is rooted in a humane, compassionate conception of character that deepens and complicates it.

“I could have guessed that one day I’d hear something I shouldn’t have on that party line. It was one thing listening to the gossip and the small talk that buzzed along its wires all the time, but it was something else to hear, on a hot Saturday morning before you started high school, that your best friend’s mother, the woman you wished you could somehow have married one day, was dead.”

Dangerous boyhood memories surface when a letter brings news of Karl’s suicide.

Karl, Max’s enigmatic friend who taught him how to toughen up when he’d first arrived in their small Lowveld town. Karl, whose beautiful mother became the object of Max’s raging teenage obsession.

Her tragic death brought a brutal end to the two boys’ friendship. But why exactly did Karl and his family leave town so soon thereafter?

As Max tries to make sense of what is transpiring, his complicity in the ills of the past begins to gnaw at him.

Due South of Copenhagen is Mark Winkler’s masterful tale of the friendships between men, small-town living during the height of South Africa’s Border War, and about what it takes to put the past to rest.

Musical Comedy 3 m, 2 f Too Old for the Chorus is a smart, funny musical revue about men and women who find themselves suddenly 50! Set in their neighborhood retro coffee shop, five characters express in 18 musical numbers the gamut of their frustrations and joys - from troublesome relations with still demanding parents and cutting edge technology to finding delight in second careers (and second chances), getting smarter, and finally knowing that "Age is just a Number." The title celebrates life, finding fulfillment and being appreciated for exactly who you are - all while getting a senior discount. For more information on the show, please visit www.toooldforthechorus.com. "The show hits a marketing sweet spot. It plays to the vast baby boom generation ...but its appeal isn't limited to that audience. As with Avenue Q, the topics here are universal...Time and again, ache gives way to good humor and renewed determination...you'll leave rethinking 50 as 27, with 23 years of experience." -The Los Angeles Times. "Uproarious! Show Biz bliss!" -San Diego Union Tribune. "Musical theatre doesn't get much better than this. With literate lyrics that rival Cole Porter and Noel Coward." -Get Up and Go. "A little show with a big heart...The numbers reverberate with wit and humanity" -LA Weekly. "...a smart, funny and sometimes touching exploration of the challenges and joys of aging." -San Diego.com. "Baby Boomers will find resonance and uplift...in this unpretentiously enjoyable valentine to aging contentedly." -Back Stage West. "A lively musical revue...the evening just flies by!" -Jewish Times