Margie Orford: Writing to stay alive

If it hadn’t been for writer’s block, the book lying between the writer and me on the coffee shop table may not have been there. In fact, the writer herself would probably not have been here on this late autumn Friday morning in Johannesburg.

Unlike us two hacks, the writer’s therapist did not find her joke about why she couldn’t commit suicide funny at all. 

Internationally acclaimed and respected author and journalist Margie Orford tells the story in her powerful, recently...