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Books > Promotion > Pre-Orders > Biography
'Only the second teenager to have scored a goal in a World Cup Final! Welcome to the club - it's great to have some company!' - Pelé This was the praise lauded upon Kylian Mbappé who, at just 19 years of age, led France to triumph at the 2018 World Cup. As golden confetti rained down, millions across the globe watched as the young man kissed the iconic trophy; the heir to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the best footballer in the world had announced himself. It was his crowning moment. In Kylian Mbappé: The Definitive Biography, Julien Laurens, the world's leading French football journalist, paints a vivid portrait of Mbappé's meteoric rise to global stardom. After a decade covering Kylian's career, Julien has had unprecedented access to the player's friends, coaches and teammates past and present. Exploring Mbappé's humble upbringing in the suburbs of Paris and schooling at the famed Clairefontaine academy, his peerless rise with AS Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain, as well as his dream move to Real Madrid where his career has reached new heights, this extensive biography crafts an intimate account of Kylian's life. Julien takes us into the inner workings of Mbappé's psyche, as we witness how becoming a world superstar at just 19 affected the young Parisian. From the complex relationship he had with his boyhood club and its hierarchy to valiantly losing against Lionel Messi's Argentina in the 2022 World Cup Final, and becoming the new face of Real Madrid's galácticos, Julien shows us how the Mbappé that stars for club and country today is unrecognisable from the one who won the World Cup with France in 2018.
A memoir that spans three generations of one South African family, beginning in the erased neighbourhood of Wittebome in Cape Town and unfolding through the forced removals of apartheid, the intimacy of township life in Gugulethu, and the hidden truths that reshaped a child's understanding of love, belonging, and survival. At its heart, this is the story of a girl raised by her grandparents in a house where politics co-existed with the daily rhythms of survival, and where abundance was measured not in wealth but in ritual, memory, and care. It is also the story of her mother, Nokhephu—first believed to have died in a tragic accident. The truth would turn her childhood upside down: the sister she thought she had was, in fact, her mother—and she had not died. Both personal and political, it is a meditation on memory, silence, and inheritance. It asks: what does it mean to be held—by grief, by history, by love—and what happens when the truths that bind us finally come undone?
From the golden beaches of Durban to the thunderous waves of Hawaii’s North Shore, Godfather of the Waves charts the extraordinary life of Mike Larmont – the man who shaped South African surfing in every sense of the word. Raised on South Beach, Larmont’s ocean odyssey began with borrowed surf mats and a dream. By the time he was a teenager, he was hand-shaping boards with a breadknife, launching a movement that would define a generation. His story surges from the heady surf culture of the 1960s and ’70s – a time of wild waves, wild parties and fierce freedom – through the challenges of sporting isolation in the 1980s, to the renaissance that followed. Along the way, Larmont became a world traveller and entrepreneur: making connections with local and international legends, manufacturing boards and other surfing gear, running the local franchise of global brands such as Rip Curl, co-founding Zigzag magazine, spearheading the rise of windsurfing in South Africa, and coaching South African surfers in world championships. His journey is one of grit and grace – from underground shaper to international icon, surviving shootouts, wipeouts and the relentless tides of change. Told with honesty, humour and heart, Godfather of the Waves captures the untamed spirit of surfing and the soul of a man who never stopped chasing the next perfect ride.
The major new memoir from Sir Alex Ferguson, filled with never-before-seen photographs and memorabilia from his private archives. Twenty-one games. One extraordinary life. Sir Alex Ferguson is widely regarded as the greatest football manager of all time. In this intimate and heartfelt memoir, he tells the unique stories of twenty-one defining matches in his career, revealing fresh insights into his incredible journey from working-class Glasgow to the summit of global football as manager of Manchester United. Reaching far beyond the trophy cabinet, Sir Alex relives seventy years of footballing history – from his first medal as a schoolboy in 1956 to watching United's 2024 FA Cup victory from the stands – to reflect on the relationships, rivalries, life lessons and moments of adversity that forged his character and his teams. Written with Sir Michael Moritz, Games of My Life is a masterclass in leadership, persistence, and the enduring power of teamwork, told through the raw, unforgettable drama of the beautiful game. Shedding new light on the real stories behind the headlines, it is a true celebration of Sir Alex and his legacy. 'I’ve selected 21 football games which are particularly meaningful to me – games that take me back to different points in my life. Some of these games are not in any television archive. They are just memories. But, in my mind, I am watching them now – in vivid colour' – Sir Alex Ferguson
From the actor in Skins and Games of Thrones, a deeply intimate, shockingly honest memoir about acting, fame, mental illness and the struggle to leave a cult-like organisation whose belief in magic shattered Hannah’s reality. In 2017, Hannah Murray was a successful actor whose career had taken her to Hollywood and given her the opportunity to act with A list stars and Oscar-winning directors. But as the daily costs of acting grew, from the degradations of auditions to repeating violent scenes over and over, Hannah found herself searching for something to make her feel better. One day, a reiki healer promises her a new kind of treatment, a kind of magic, and all of a sudden Hannah’s life is changed. Back in London, she becomes increasingly involved with the organisation behind the magic, an organisation whose charismatic leader, promises of secret knowledge, and increasingly complex rituals, are seductive, cult-like – and ultimately destructive, as Hannah finds herself on a week-long course from her friends and family - and her sanity falls apart. Detained in hospital, she struggles to understand the difference between what’s real, and what’s imagined. The result is a propulsive, shockingly honest, and extraordinarily intimate portrayal of a mind taken over the edge. From the outer edges of fame, through Hollywood film sets and London parties, Hannah’s life has slowly moved from that of a successful starlet to that of a young woman seduced by the magical thinking of an organisation that promises health and happiness beyond her wildest dreams, but her reality becomes far more disturbing than she could ever have imagined. Shocking, intimate and compulsive, The Make-Believe is an ultimately uplifting and inspiring story of empathy, resilience and the power of belief.
On 16 June 1976, thousands of Black South African school children took to the streets of Soweto in protest against the introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction under apartheid education. Met with brutal police force, many never returned home. This pivotal day, now remembered as the start of the Soweto Uprising, also reverberated through the walls of 6001, Lebo Diseko’s family home in Orlando East. In The House at 6001, Diseko traces the intertwined lives of her parents and her aunts and uncles who gathered, organised and resisted within their four-room Soweto house. From banning orders and exile to late-night parties filled with music and defiance, their story captures both the intimacy and the enormity of South Africa’s struggle. Drawing on unsealed government documents, interviews and her own personal journey to revisit her family history and home, Diseko offers a moving memoir of resistance, secrets and the lasting cost of freedom.
When the body breaks and the mind spirals, this is what it takes to fight your way back. Born with a congenital aortic valve defect, Brandon Fairweather was always destined for open-heart surgery but never expected to need it at just 28 years of age. He shares his encounters with gripping spells of physiological and medical-related anxiety on his journey to, and beyond, the life-changing surgery. After years of struggle, and determined to no longer let the crippling disorder rule his life, he resolved to document the process as a form of therapy, but also in the hope that it might help others battling similar mental turmoil. Following successful heart surgery in 2011, Brandon experienced several further complications, including a stroke ten years later, followed by a devastating, life-threatening loss of blood in the same year. Adding insult to injury was a brutal cancer diagnosis in 2023, after a misdiagnosis the year before. The Hell Inside Our Heads is an inspirational journaling of thoughts and a discovery of meaning and happiness born from the depths of severe anxiety. Readers are encouraged to flip the narrative from pain to purpose and to use adversity as an advantage. The ambition in this book is simple: to feel healed, healthy and stronger, while offering practical, effective lessons to navigate mental health struggles with greater ease. This deeply personal account of life at the height of severe anxiety combines vulnerability, authenticity, humour, and practical solutions to help manage day-to-day anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders. It’s a patient’s perspective, filled with golden nuggets of coping mechanisms and processes aimed at short- to medium-term peace and recovery.
Fifty years after the Soweto Uprising, little is known about its most iconic youth leader, the elusive Tsietsi Mashinini, who instigated the schools protest which changed South Africa forever, only to flee the country, shun the ANC, hang out with Miriam Makeba, marry Miss Liberia – and be mysteriously murdered. Now, in time for the anniversary, Sowetan author and social historian Sam Mathe tells Tsietsi’s full story for the first time.
Growing up queer, brown and ambitious in a conservative South African Indian household comes with rules, expectations and a lot of things no one is allowed to say out loud. In Qualified Disappointment, comedian and actor Prev Reddy turns that silence into comedy. From choreographing braai dances to surviving family WhatsApp groups, Prev learned early how to perform, deflect and entertain his way through a world obsessed with appearances and the fear of becoming a disappointment. Prev delivers a moving memoir about tradition, taboo and the pressure to live a life that looks respectable from the outside, charting his journey from a glitter loving child in Durban to an internationally recognised social media star and stage performer. Hovering over it all is his alter-ego, Aunty Shamilla. She is opinionated and watchful – the familiar voice of community judgement, reluctant affection and unsolicited advice. Deeply honest and unapologetically bold, Qualified Disappointment is for anyone who has felt like an outsider in their own home and fought to stay soft, funny and powerful anyway.
The Unlikely Candidate is the astonishing story of a boy from Kuruman, a boy no one expected anything great from whose life became evidence that God writes the most beautiful stories with the most least expected beginnings. The rejected boy became a builder of people. The one who struggled to speak became a communicator. The insecure child became a leader of leaders. The boy without a father became a father to many. The broken became a healer. Today, Koketso travels the world speaking hope, truth, and courage, reminding thousands that God does not choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen. This book is not just a memoir, it is a testimony that reminds you that your failures do not disqualify you. Your wounds can become weapons in God’s hands. It is a story of pain and redemption, insecurity and calling and a story of how God takes the unlikely and turns them into instruments of impact.
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