2017

2017 was a really busy year for us!

We went to Paris, Pisa, JHB, Makhado, White River, Richmond, McGregor, Shrewsbury, Nottingham, Much Wenlock, London, Oxford, Cape Town and residency at Nirox Scuplture Park.

We launched two more Oaky books - Oaky the Brave Acorn and What is Happening to Oaky?

Athol published his fourth book of poetry INVITATION.

Read to Rise turned 4! To date we have given out over 92,000 new story books.

We saw snow in Oxford.

Athol graduated (MPhil Political Theory) from Oxford University.

What a great year!

Weekend in Nottingham 15-18 December 2017

Athol attended a poetry workshop in Hockley, Nottingham on Saturday so we decided to make a weekend out of it.

Nottingham is known for the tale of Robin Hood as the Sherwood Forest is nearby. There's a statue of Robin Hood by the Nottingham Castle.

It is a nice vibrant city with tons of shops, even two malls. There are trams in the city. Nottingham has over 500 sandstone caves under the city. Really liked the city. There was a big Christmas market by the Old Market Square, there was a fair and even an ice rink. It was very busy!

This was the Sky Mirror, an art piece by the Nottingham Playhouse.

 There is a lovely canal tow path.

 This is Mortimer's Hole by the Castle.

 Had a lovely breakfast at  Pitcher and Piano, which is a chapel converted restaurant/bar.

Our first snow in Oxford

On Sunday 10 December 2017, it snowed in Oxford.

We haven't seen snow since our time on Boston, 5 years ago.

Still love seeing snow :) it's so beautiful and dreamy!

Even built a mini- snowman, we call him Charles :)

It's so cold though, thank goodness for the heating. Schools were closed on Monday due to the snow.

Oaky Inter-School Stage Play Competition

Read to Rise, in partnership with Liberty Promenade, hosted the first ever Oaky Inter-School Stage Play Competition in Mitchells Plain.

Ten primary schools participated - Highlands Primary, Meadowridge Primary, Mitchells Plain Primary, Littlewood Primary, Liesbeeck Primary, Hugueot Primary, Dennegeur Avenue Primary, Montagu Drive Primary, Rocklands Primary and AZ Berman Primary Schools.

The First Round took place 1-2 November 2017 at Highlands Primary School. The Grade 3s put on plays based on the book OAKY THE HAPPY TREE written by Athol Williams. All the plays were amazing!

The top four schools went through to the Final on Saturday 11 November 2017 at Liberty Promenade - AZ Berman Primary School, Meadowridge Primary, Rocklands Primary and Liesbeeck Primary Schools. The judges included Michael Wilson, Madeegha Anders and Darren Amos. Hectic Nine 9 presenter Chanelle Davids was  the MC. Congrats to the winning schools:

1st Meadowridge Primary School - R10,000

2nd Rocklands Primary School - R6,000

3rd Liesbeeck Primary School - R3,000

4th AZ Berman Primary  - R1,000

Thank you to Liberty Promenade for sponsoring the competition as well as the Read to Rise programme for 1600 learners at the ten schools.

Residency at Nirox 19-31 October 2017

Athol won a 3 week residency at Nirox as part of the 2016 Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Awards.

The Nirox Sculpture Park is in the Cradle of Humankind and is set on a beautiful park with amazing sculptures around the park. The park was originally a trout farm. We has an amazing few days there. A perfect place for inspiration, quiet and creativity! Even had our own Chef, so was nice not to worry about cooking and doing dishes for a change :)

The Nirox Words Festival took place on 22-23 October 2017. Athol has a few sessions. One with fellow poets Toni Stuart and Lebo Mashile. It was a great session of poetry.

The announcement of the 2017 Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Award was announced during the festival. Athol was the MC as well as one of the English judges for the competition. Well done to all winners.It was the first time that a non-English poem won - well done Moses. Wally Serobe was the main judge.

Athol had a session with Afrikaans poet and TV host Bibi Slippers who shared some of her poetry.

Athol had a great session about his new poetry book INVITATION.

It was a great festival!

Athol the keynote speaker at the Actuarial Society of South Africa Convention 18 October 2017

Athol was the keynote speaker at this year's Actuarial Society of South Africa Convention in Sandton.

Athol's talk was about Possibilities - You, Me, Us. Over 1000 actuaries attended the event.