Saturday 2nd June. It was a cold winter's day and raining heavily outside. Yet inside St George's Cathedral Crypt all was aglow with warmth and light. Just this once, we're going to hold back the words and let the pictures (big thank you to George Davis) do most of the talking...
There were speeches... not too many. (Philippa Kabali-Kagwa, Dawn Garisch, Carole Bloch)
There was atmospheric music and humorous performances... (Professor Steve Reid, Dawn & Linda performing 'Mrs', Dinah Eppel playing the Uhadi, John Cartwright, St John Haw, Reini Adelbert)
There was a celebration of writers receiving their copies of the anthology... (Stephanie Safari, Christine Bayly, John Cartwright, Lucy Alexander, Reini Adelbert, Vonni Romano, Yvonne O'Connor, Nathan Festus) and of course many more not pictured here...
There were readings.... not enough! (Dela Gwala, Charlotte Mande Ilunga, Annette Snyckers, Beauty Bokwani, Joa Le Roux, Floss Mitchell)
There was the appreciative audience enjoying the moment...
There was, most importantly, cake... (divinely conjured up by Lucy Alexander, cake purveyor extraordinaire)
There was bubbly (donated by Nicole De Klerk) and yummy refreshments (donated by Dawn), custom-designed bookmarks (thank you Giles Griffin for your generous donation of these small works of art) gorgeous flower arrangements (thanks again to Lucy) and her two steady number-crunching sisters managing the book sales (Sue and Jane - thank you!) , there was the amazing venue itself, generously donated to us for free (thank you The Jazz Crypt and the staff who served us so well, especially manager Ashton and Junaid who helped with sound) and then of course our two lovely EmCees who held everything together with aplomb - Linda Kaoma and Giles Griffin.
But above all, there was Love. Love filled the room so that we left with hearts brimming over with goodwill and warmth even as we ventured out again into the cold rainy night. Together we were celebrating life writing, life righting and life itself.