Prawns And Nostalgia . . .

Ah, the Radium Bar & Grill, in the Joburg suburb of Orange Grove. It was my favourite haunt during the apartheid years when I was editor of a black magazine. I used to visit the bar several times a week with Kerry, my very large news editor. I'd fiercely argue politics with the largest guy in the room and then, just as blood - mine - was about to be spilled, Kerry would move in, look fierce, and rescue me.

Nowadays, the Radium has more refined customers and serves the best prawns in Joburg. When I went with Denis Beckett this evening, the bar owner pointed to a wall which featured a tearsheet of a 25-year-old article from Frontline, a magazine Denis owned and edited, and I designed.

No blood this time, just prawns, a couple of beers - and a lot of nostalgia . . .