I am a South African photographer, writer and researcher now living in London. My working life has focussed on social issues, health and HIV. (CV)
This website reflects my past work and current passions.
As an older person I have become increasingly engaged in the science and experiences of ageing.

“We are all apprentice old people.
Things that work well for people who are older tend also to make things better for everyone.”

Lucy Pollock, geriatrician

 

lesley and lesley 4Self portraits at home 1978, 2024

In the foothills

About the time of life, described by Leonard Cohen as “the foothills of old age”. I review current research, evidence and experiences of ageing. Dr Kyra Neubauer, a senior consultant physician with 30 years’ experience in elderly care medicine, has contributed as co-author and guest blogger.

A is for ageing

At a certain age, meetings with my old friends began to take the form of an “organ recital” of health challenges and woes. I resolved to use my research skills to produce a quick reference to current science and thinking on the topic, an A to Z of ageing.

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The age of healthy ageing

It is a common assumption that ageing is controlled by the genes we inherit from our forefathers. Far from it. Geriatricians now estimate that, up to the age of 80 years, genes control only 20-30% of our ageing.

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Ageing and acceptance

One of the wonderful things about living in the same neighbourhood for many years is that it has given me an incidental acceptance of the ageing process.

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The wilds of London

Explorations of the quotidian: lost rivers, rural London and much, much more…

Where rivers meet

My obsession with London’s lost rivers all began with the Covid lockdown. Every morning, at first light, I would pace around Clissold Park—1,000 steps from my front door—alongside likeminded walkers, dog people and huffing hipsters.

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Rivers lost and found

An 1180 account of London describes the settlement as having flowing streams and surrounded by “excellent springs; the water of which is sweet, clear and salubrious”. Indeed, until the mid-nineteenth century, London was traversed by more than a dozen rivers, which have since disappeared underground.

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The New River Head

Returning to my investigations of the New River, I forgo the walk from Canonbury to its terminus, choosing instead to take the Number 19 bus. Alighting at Sadler’s Wells, I find Myddelton Passage, a narrow street that leads directly to the New River Head.

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Missing pieces

Investigations of my family history, which illuminates huge themes and burning issues—race, class, migration, globalisation, war and peace. “Missing pieces” is both about the making of white South Africa and the making of me.

Maids, miners and mariners

Research on the lives of my ancestors began as a quest to find a place of belonging in my adopted home of England. In African culture one is taught to honour one’s ancestors. But as a young white South African I found it more comfortable to edit them out of my own narrative.

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Silver darlings

In days gone by, pilchards were the “silver darlings” of St Ives, supplying “meat, money and light all in one night”. Meaning a healthy diet, oil for lamps and reliable incomes. Throughout the 19th century, the pilchard catch drove the St Ives economy, providing fishing jobs and other industries that served them—the boat builders, coopers, rope and net makers.

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Great-grandfather John - a life

This is the only photograph that I have of any of my St Ives ancestors: great-grandfather John Roach, born in 1849 to Ann and John Roach. Like all John Roaches before him, he was a man of the sea.

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Photography, writing and film

4 CHWDanceDuring the 1980s I was active in the social documentary photography movement in South Africa, working largely for educational organisations, trade unions and other civil society organisations. As apartheid became more complex, I began to use the written word to bear witness.

Photography >
Books >
Reportage >
Film >

Communications

7 cleanerI have a wide range of skills and many years of experience in translating complex knowledge into plain English text and accessible communications products, working for Mott MacDonald on DFID programmes and multilateral agencies such as UNAIDS.

Health and HIV highlights >
Early work >