Roxanne reid - Author, Editor, Writer and Blogger at ReidWrite
Please tell us a little more about the projects that you are busy with at the moment.
Apart from the usual writing and editing for hire, and contributing to a few online travel and wildlife blogs, I write my own weekly African travel blog to inspire others to love Africa – or just their small patch of it. Later this year I’m planning an extended trip to do research for another travel book.
Another ongoing project very close to my heart is my role as communications director of Reach4Sight – a non-profit organisation started by my optometrist husband Keith to take eye care to the underprivileged in remote rural communities. This social responsibility work has taken us from the Kalahari to the Richtersveld, from Phuthaditjhaba in the Free State to communities bordering the Kruger National Park. In the past seven years we have provided eye care to some 8000 people.
What is it that you are passionate about?
I have a passion for Africa – anything from travel to people, culture and heritage, wildlife and conservation. I love road trips and am definitely happiest in the middle of nowhere, meeting the locals, trying something new, or simply watching the grass grow.
Who or what has been the biggest influence in your life and why?
I’ve always been a greedy reader so books have been an inspiration. I remember wandering the world inside a good book during school holidays, reading by torchlight under the covers after ‘lights out’, and scoffing a 900-page set work at university in a single sitting, not sleeping at all until it was finished.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Go it alone earlier: life’s much more fun when you start to control you own destiny.
Please tell us a little more about your books.
I’ve had three books published so far, two of them travel books. A Walk in the Park (2009) tells of experiences, activities, cultural heritage and people I came into contact with on a ten-week journey in and around South Africa’s national parks. I wanted to inform and entertain the average armchair traveller, so you’ll find answers to some intriguing questions like why your partner is potentially more dangerous than a black mamba, or what Patricia Lewis, James Small and Ozzie Osborne’s kids have in common.
Travels in the Kalahari (2012) documents my love affair with the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park over more than 30 visits to date; its red dunes and star-punctured skies, its black-maned lions and meerkats digging for feasts of scorpions, and of course its people. The last chapter gives practical advice to first timers wanting to plan their own Kgalagadi adventure. Wild magazine said, ‘Roxanne has a wonderfully chatty style that makes it feel as if she’s sharing a fireside tale.’
Betrayed: A Mother's Battle for Justice (2011) was different. It’s the true story of a mother whose daughter was murdered but police bungling meant the killer was never brought to justice. I co-wrote it with the mother, Carol Thompson, after a harrowing nine months raking over past events and emotions. Critic Jonathan Amid said it was structured ‘like a literary thriller’ and gave ‘a credible portrait of the roller coaster ride that is youth’.
What inspired you to write?
One of my earliest writing inspirations was a neighbour who became an English teacher but used to write (unpublished) stories in her spare time and read them to me from when I was about five or six. By the time I was nine I knew I wanted to be a writer in some form, and was writing stories, novels and travelogues of my own. Sadly – or perhaps luckily – few of these have survived.
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