Rhodes Music Radio JMS50

Interview with Rebecca Davis

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A Google search reveals an inordinate number of Rebecca Davises across the world, but only one who has been described as ‘one of the funniest writers in South Africa today’. This Rhodes alumna finished her studies at Oxford University, honing her skill with words through a role in lexicography at the Oxford English Dictionary. Following this apprenticeship, she returned to South Africa and took up a position at the newly-formed Daily Maverick. A piece in the DM, announcing her return to the paper in 2017, describes Rebecca finding her place in the news media scene in South Africa with ‘her refined writing, incredible versatility and combativeness, as well as her outspoken nature’. During her time away from the Maverick, Rebecca published ‘Best White and other anxious delusions’, tapping into a particularly 21st century zeitgeist around greetings, internet dating and social media, the future of reading and, of course, the perils of attempting to live as a ‘Best White’. Rebecca is also the author of ‘Self-Helpless: A Cynic’s Search for Sanity’ and is a radio journalist with a regular Friday slot on Cape Talk Radio, where she is in conversation with John Maytham about subjects that created a stir in the news and in social media during the previous week.
28 Jun 2023 English South Africa Business · Education

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