My own thesis for a Master of Arts, awarded by the University of Western Australia in 1980, was titled Heart of Apartness. It is by far the longest piece of writing I have ever accomplished.

The subject was misfits – human alienation, as treated by four novelists who set works in Africa. Sidestreams have always interested me more than mainstream.

The journalist’s mentality is often to side with people who have difficulty fitting in, so it was not too much of a stretch to follow literary threads of this patchwork.

Patrick