The multinational naval exercise WILL FOR PEACE, hosted by the South African Navy in Simon’s Town, brought the navies of China, Russia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates to Cape waters in January 2026.
BOOK REVIEWS
Michael Stevenson’s Samuel Daniell: A Life of an Artist in Southern Africa and Ceylon, 1799–1811 stands as a work of rare distinction: sumptuous in production, meticulous in scholarship, and deeply rewarding in intellectual substance.
BLUE PLAQUES
American born I W Schlesinger came to South Africa in 1894. He bought Cooke's Farm and named it Killarney in c. 1913. In 1890 Michele Angelo Zoccola established the Grand National Hotel in Rissik Street and in c. 1935 his son Mario built Mentone Court in the Art Deco style. The architects were Cook and Cowen. Zoccola's heirs owned Mentone Court until 1982 when it was sectionalised.