Well, HiLo, I listened to some interviews on Radio 3 a couple of weeks ago with the actor Antony Sher who had lived in apartheid South Africa. You can probably get a podcast of the interviews. He expressed his extreme shame when he admitted that he didn't see the horrors of apartheid until he left the country. You were not in Israel as a Palestinian unless I'm seriously mistaken. The privileged in divided countries are insulated from the troubles. It's up to you to open your eyes now to what goes on. My uncles, returning from Rhodesia, refused to see it. Antony Sher opened his eyes. I don't know where you are with it. And please don't tell me that I had to live there. Most people who live there are fed a distorted view of what goes on, if they have to think about it at all. It's what governments do, even ours.

When I came to England in 1968, at 19, I looked around me and I didn't see any Jewish leading men in the classical theatre, so I thought it best to conceal my Jewishness. Also, I quickly became conscious of apartheid when I arrived here, and I didn't want to be known as a white South African. I was brought up in a very apolitical family. We were happy to enjoy the benefits of apartheid without questioning the system behind it. Reading about apartheid when I came to England was a terrible shock. So I lost the accent almost immediately, and if anyone asked me where I was from I would lie.