In 1969, while a student at Wits University, John Schlapobersky was arrested for opposing apartheid and tortured, detained and eventually deported. Interrogated through sleep deprivation, he later wrote secretly in solitary confinement about the struggle for survival.

In this exquisitely written memoir, written half a century after the event, the author reflects on the singing of the condemned prisoners, the poetry, songs and texts that saw him through his ordeal, and its impact.

He transformed his life - guided by a sense of hope - working as a psychotherapist with a continuing focus on rehabilitation with others. Apartheid and its resistance come to life in this story to make it a vital historical document, one of its time and one for our own.

Join Ivan Johnson in this memoir of an identity crisis as a high-spirited boy from a close-knit family on the Cape Flats becomes a man amid the turmoil of The Struggle.

Joining the lily white advertising industry, he ghosts from group to group, fitting in everywhere but belonging nowhere.

Told with flair and irreverence, Ivan’s sharp eye and zest for life gives both food for thought and great entertainment.

Robert Hamblin's much awaited memoir is a tale of a human who refuses to live in a box, confronting and healing from gender confines and racism.

It's about excavating the truth in violent Apartheid South Africa where law and church decide which body can love another, based on colour or gender, brilliantly exploring the confines of the straight trajectory.

This book is the story of an exceptional man: David Samaai. The author takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the life of Davy (as he was affectionately known by his peers) who began his career in the streets of a beautiful suburb called the Ou Tuin (Old Garden) on the banks of the picturesque Berg River. Due to the Group Areas Act of the apartheid government they were forced to leave their homes. They had to move to the other side of the river to a new town: Paarl East.

Many thought that it was the end. On the contrary, it was anything but game set and match. Because of inspirational leadership, they managed to overcome apartheid and even excelled! David led by example. First, he conquered Wimbledon and then he led his community rebuilding their town, their schools, the mosque and the church. In fact, they rebuilt their entire lives.

Eventually it turned out to be a chronicle of the political emancipation of a community to which David Samaai was an inspiration, not because he was a legendary tennis player, a gifted musician or a committed school principal and teacher, but because he was and still is an example to any South African.

He left a legacy that with hard work and perseverance you can achieve your dream.

In this finely observed memoir, Kenneth de Kok writes tenderly yet humorously about the relationship between fathers and sons, about family life, and about childhood.

The work unearths the physical and psychic landscape of Stilfontein, a small mining community in the Western Transvaal, in the 1950s. The narrator gives voice to his own secret pleasures and fears, while vividly recreating the topography that dominates his world.

A sensitive and rare account of the hierarchies, privileges and prejudices of white mining experience, as seen through the eyes of a boy.

Panicked thoughts. Vivid nightmares. Racing heart. Unrelenting dread. Witnessing the drowning death of her four-year-old brother Owen was the beginning of a lifetime of nightmares. Growing up during the oppressive system, apartheid, in South Africa, increased her anxiety as she struggled with her self-worth. And it was in writing her debut book, A Darker Shade of Pale: A Memoir of Apartheid South Africa, that she unravelled.

In Behind My Smile: The True Story of an Author, a Broken Spirit and a Healer, Beryl dissects her struggles with grief. After a lifelong battle with self-acceptance Beryl found the keys to overcoming the stigma of mental breakdown.

The book offers a candid and absorbing account of Beryl's healing journey. She shares details of the intensive work of clinical psychologist and energy medicine practitioner, Dr Geoff Lyons. This healing encouraged Beryl to explore her belief in the power of her heritage, the gifts available from contact with her ancestors and traditional healing methods. Having found a true healer, Beryl was able to see the richness of a life free of all manner of oppression -- political, psychological, material. Based on her healing she strongly believes that talk therapy and traditional healing must merge.

This story is essential reading for anyone who knows what it means to hover on the edge, and find a way to dive back into life.

‘Highly readable and packed with fascinating historical detail, this is the compelling story of a ripsnorting South African cricketer whose career was smothered by the shameless colour prejudice of Cecil John Rhodes and his snobbish cronies. By turns formidable, sad, enlivening and enormously informative, this book pays Hendricks the honour that has long been his due.’  – Bill Nasson
 
William Henry ‘Krom’ Hendricks was the first sportsman to be formally barred from representing South Africa on the basis of race. Hailing from Cape Town’s Bo-Kaap, he played in 1892 for the South African Malay team against the touring English, who insisted that he was among the best fast bowlers in the world. This made his exclusion from South Africa’s tour of England in 1894 all the more unjust.
 
Ranged against Hendricks were virulent racism and a political alliance between arch-imperialist Cecil John Rhodes, Afrikaner Bond leader J.H. Hofmeyr, and William Milton, who controlled cricket at the Cape through the Western Province Cricket Union.  Too Black to Wear Whites  documents Hendricks’s tireless struggle for recognition and the public controversies around his exclusion. The book shows how Hendricks was further sidelined as club teams made up of different races were prevented from playing against one another, saving white players the embarrassment of being shown up by the country’s best fast bowler.
 
Considering his importance in South African sports history, surprisingly little is known about Krom Hendricks. The story of his life is told here for the first time in a fascinating drama that describes the formation of a segregated South Africa through the career of an exceptional cricketer who dared to test the boundaries of the system.

Andre P Brink En Die Spel Van Liefde is die heel eerste biografie van ’n Suid-Afrikaanse skrywer wat gedurende sy leeftyd in dieselfde asem as Gabriel García Márquez, Peter Carey en Aleksandr Soltzjenitsen genoem is, en wie se romans in meer as 30 tale vertaal is.

In Leon de Kock se langverwagte biografie word Brink se persoonlike dagboeke en joernale as die belangrikste bronmateriaal hanteer. Brink het meer as 50 jaar lank sy ervarings en gedagtes pligsgetrou opgeteken: hierdie notaboeke, waartoe De Kock eksklusief toegang verkry het, word nou vir die eerste maal bekend gemaak.

Die spel van liefde is ’n omvangryke biografie wat die leser ’n openhartige, onverbloemde blik gee op Brink se gedagtes en gevoelens – oor homself én ander. Brink beskryf die hoogte- en laagtepunte van sy vyf huwelike asook sy verskeie verhoudings met ’n groot aantal vroue – ’n onderwerp wat hy in sy memoir, ’n Vurk in die pad, maar slegs vlugtig bespreek. Gedurende sy leeftyd het Brink hom nie net teen die politieke bestel verset nie, maar veral ook teen tradisionele seksuele sedes.

In hierdie biografie van ’n skrywer aan wie die Nobelprys vir letterkunde byna toegeken is, bekyk De Kock Brink se persoonlike, outobiografiese aantekeninge vanuit ’n kritiese, literêre oogpunt. Daarmee saam vergelyk hy die dagboeke met akademiese en ander, alledaagse bronne, waaronder getuienisse deur Brink se vriende, familie, eggenote en minnaresse. Die spel van liefde is ’n unieke, belangrike toevoeging tot die Suid-Afrikaanse lettere, maar veral ook tot navorsing oor Brink se lewe en skryfwerk.

Iets heerliks gebeur. Dis asof ek nie meer Lanie-op-’n-fiets op ’n mission is nie, maar een word met die natuur om my; of ek nog van altyd af hier was, hier hoort. Asof die lewe nog altyd eenvoudig was. Ek klim af en gaan lê op my rug en kyk deur die herfsblare wat goud aan die bome hang tot by die ysblou lug ver bo. Ek wil iets gee, iets sê…

Net mooi fine is die opvolg van Lanie van Reenen se suksesvolle boek C’est la Vie. Hierin beskryf sy wat gebeur het sedert haar hotelprojek in Frankryk gefaal het; hoe sy die nuwe realiteite van haar eie gestroopte lewe te bowe moet kom terwyl sy ook die verwerende château moet probeer red of verkoop.

Op haar pad na heling onderneem Lanie vele avonture: soms alleen per fiets, soos wanneer sy die Camino Portuguese voltooi; maar ook te voet, soos die tog na die berg Everest se basiskamp wat sy ter wille van liefdadigheid onderneem.

In hierdie ontroerende omstandighede ontstaan die vraag: Wat is die somtotaal van verlies? En hoe groot is die wins wat verlies tot gevolg kan hê as jy bewustelik daarmee omgaan, sodat ʼn mens ten slotte kan sê: “Eintlik is alles net mooi fine”?

Toe Vivian op 16-jarige ouderdom haar pa in die winkel se deur sien staan met sy hoed in sy hand het sy geweet haar lewe gaan onkeerbaar verander – haar pa het sy werk verloor. Hulle word uit hulle huis op Paternoster gesit. Vivian dink sy is gelukkig toe die veel ouer John by die werk in haar begin belangstel. Hy belowe om vir haar gesin ’n huis op Vredenburg te kry, maar min weet sy die huis het ’n prys. Vivian word vervreem van haar familie en verval in ’n spiraal van mishandeling. Sy laat haar egter nie onderkry nie, en besluit eendag dat sy genoeg gehad het. Sy begin haar lewe van voor af bou. Vivian het ’n kop vir besigheid, en ná verskeie poste besluit sy om haar eie wynbesigheid te begin. Nou, jare later, het sy haar eerste oes afgehaal en word die wyn na Wallmart uitgevoer. Vivian se verhaal is een van hoop, passie, deursettingsvermoë en die wete dat God daar is, al lyk die omstandighede hoe sleg.

Coming of age in South Africa as apartheid falls, a young mixed-race woman struggles to overcome her identity and heritage.

Born into poverty and state-mandated third-class status, Jesmane was weighed down by self-doubt, feelings of inferiority and shame even though she was at the top of her class and showed great promise. After graduating from a prestigious South African university, earning a master's degree at Harvard University and becoming Head of Business Engagement for Africa at the World Economic Forum, she continued to wrestle with internal conflicts and contradictions stemming from her past. In this touching memoir, Jesmane and various South African colleagues explore their early lives, embrace the crippling contradictions forced upon them by apartheid, and craft new narratives for themselves, narratives of acceptance, inclusion, and boundless possibilities.

As a mixed-race (coloured) woman, whose genes connect her with all parts of Africa, as well as East Asia, South Asia, Germany, Wales, Netherlands, and other parts of the world, Jesmane is a microcosm of nations riven by internal strife. She reconciled with herself by deliberately turning to the conflicts and contradictions within. Doing so forced her to explore her past, grapple with lingering emotions, and come to a new understanding of herself, to a new healing. Our world today, divided and fractured, would benefit from a similar process of self-reconciliation, of exploration of national and individual stories, followed by the embrace of contradictions and the crafting of new narratives of acceptance, inclusion, and boundless possibilities.

The stories Jesmane tells in this book - her story, and those of people from around the world spanning from US, Mexico across to India, Pakistan, Nepal and to Rwanda - can bring healing and inspiration to all.

(Jesmane Boggenpoel is an experienced business executive and a former Head of Business Engagement for Africa at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. She has served on the boards of various South African and international organisations. She is a Chartered Accountant (South Africa) and holds a Master's degree from Harvard University's JFK School of Government. Jesmane was honoured as a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and is a Harvard Mason fellow.)

Ton Vosloo is een van die mees gerekende koerant- en sakemanne in Suid-Afrika. Gedurende sy loopbaan van sowat sestig jaar het Suid-Afrika op politieke front ’n drastiese ommekeer ondergaan: die Nasionale Party het plek gemaak vir ’n ANC-regering, wat gelei het tot transformasie op sosiale, ekonomiese en sakefront.

In 1983 is Vosloo as die besturende direkteur van Naspers aangestel en het hy hom dit ten doel gestel om dié groep – wat in 1913 as mondstuk van die Nasionale Party gestig is – te vernuwe. Vosloo het die maatskappy deur diep, onstuimige waters gestuur: op ideologiese vlak was dit ’n geveg tot die dood toe met die regse Perskor-groep om die steun van Afrikaners te wen.

Naspers moes ook op kommersiële vlak moderniseer. Dit het uiteindelik gelei het tot die stigting van M-Net, Suid-Afrika se eerste betaaltelevisiekanaal. In 1992 is Vosloo as voorsitter van Naspers aangestel en het Koos Bekker die pos as besturende direkteur aanvaar. Onder Bekker se leiding het Naspers belê in die Chinese internetmaatskappy Tencent, en vinnig ontwikkel tot ’n groep wat vandag finansiële belange regoor die wêreld het. Dít sou nie moontlik gewees het sonder die fondasie wat Vosloo in die vroeë tagtigs vir sodanige vernuwing gelê het nie.

Oor Grense is Ton Vosloo se memoir oor sy lewe in die koerantwêreld in ’n tyd toe Naspers nog baklei het om die posisie as markleier, ’n tyd toe die koerante binne sy stal baie na aan die politici van die dag gestaan het. Met sy eiesoortige humorsin en styl as gesoute joernalis vertel Ton Vosloo die storie van Naspers en van sy uiteenlopende ervarings as koerantman en sakeleier.

Ook beskikbaar in Engels as Across Boundaries

Met meer as 7 000 verhoogoptredes op sy kapstok is Pieter-Dirk Uys volksbesit. In Weerklink van ’n wanklank, sy skreeusnaakse, roerende memoires, tree die mens agter die ikoon te voorskyn.

Ons leer ken sy moeilike, musikaal-gedrewe pa, sy briljante, geheimsinnige ma, sy suster, die pianis-wonderkind, en Sannie Abader, “Pietertjie” se Kaapse Vlakte-ma.

Dan is daar sy Paarlse ouma wat hom neem om by die Verwoerds te gaan kuier, sy ander Oma en haar onverbeterlike strudel, sy vriendskap met Sophia Loren, die geboorte van Evita Bezuidenhout, en die vreugdes en hartseer van ’n merkwaardige lewe.

In this fresh and highly readable collection of South African biographical essays, a distinguished group of authors illuminates the lives of eleven colourful, complex men and women whose personal experiences throw fascinating light on the times in which they lived.

The individuals whose stories are told here are very different in time, in place and in work and at play, but are united by an abundantly rich humanity and the myriad ways in which they navigated their existence through the uneven terrain of South Africa's distant and more recent past. Including colonial administrators, activists, educationists, sportsmen, a poet, a painter and a pilot, Illuminating Lives is a wide-ranging and moving book that provides readers with striking and unexpected insights into our history.

Here are some intriguing South African lives well worth knowing about.

In A Man Apart Richard Steyn once again brings to life a South African icon. Louis Botha was the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, a union he did much to create in the decade after the devastation of the Anglo-Boer War. During the war Botha was a brilliant young Boer general who through his battlefield strategy won significant victories over the British in the early stages of the war. When the weight of British arms overhelmed the Boers, Botha along with Smuts did much to encourage peace between English and Afrikaner and led the country to Union in 1910 and dominion status.

Botha was a big-hearted and generous man who showed magnanimity in his dealings with all, including former enemies. He led the South African troops to victory and the capture of German South West Africa – prior to this he had to put down a revolt of pro-German Afrikaners. At the Peace of Versailles, representing South Africa, he pleaded unsuccessfully for magnanimity towards the Germans. Botha was a globally respected figure – he and Smuts effectively operated as a double act in South Africa and on the international stage before Botha’s untimely death in August 1919 at only 57. In A Man Apart this tragically short life is illuminated in full.

Ton Vosloo’s remarkable career in the media spanned nearly 60 years in South Africa’s history. During this turbulent time, South Africa went through the transition from Afrikaner Nationalist rule to an ANC government. At the helm of the leading press group founded in 1913 to support nascent Afrikaner nationalism, Vosloo’s story is not just one of newspapers and politics but also one of singular business and commercial success as the Naspers Group evolved from a print group to an electronic company with significant investments across the world.

In 1983 Vosloo was appointed managing director of Naspers and set about vigorously transforming the group. On the ideological front, it was a fight to the death with the old Transvaal’s predominantly right-wing Perskor Group for the soul of the Afrikaner. On the commercial front, Vosloo established the pay television network M-Net. In 1992, Vosloo became chairman of Naspers with Koos Bekker succeeding him as CEO. The story of Naspers’ successes in investing in Chinese internet company Tencent and in establishing a footprint in 130 countries is a continuing one, but one begun under Vosloo’s stewardship.

In Across Boundaries, Vosloo gives his account of these momentous times with wry humour and a journalist’s deft pen.

ALSO AVAILABLE IN AFRIKAANS AS OOR GRENSE

Wat beteken dit as ’n jong Afrikanerman jou beskryf as “nogals orraait”? Hoe trek jy die gehoor se aandag as die basaarpoeding hulle gemesmeraais het? En waar in die wêreld is die berugte Pomona Spur? In dié piepie-jou-nat-van-die-lag memoire verklap Schalk – en sy soortvan-bestuurder, Erns Grundling – die bisarre en hartroerende dinge wat hy oorgekom het op sy reise regoor die land na oral waar ’n mikrofoon en ’n gehoor hom inwag.

In September 2007, Ellen Pakkies, a working mother from Lavender Hill on the Cape Flats, strangled her son to death. The judge in the subsequent trial sentenced her to community service for her crime. What drove Ellen to commit this horrific deed, and why the ostensibly light sentence for such a heinous crime?

The story of what happened over ten years ago has continued to grip public interest, putting a spotlight on the dire and desperate situation faced by many parents of addicted children. A highly successful play was produced in theatres around South Africa in 2011/12, and a full-length movie has recently been made of this story, which will reach the big screen in September 2018.

When Dealing in Death was first published in 2009, the scourge of drug addiction was sweeping across South Africa, affecting every level of society. Little, if anything, has changed since then, as this new edition reveals. The use of tik, particularly in the Western Cape, has skyrocketed, and it was Abie Pakkies’s addiction to this drug, and the horrendous impact it had on his and his family’s lives, that drove Ellen to murder. Her trial exposed the dark underbelly of a community crippled by drug and alcohol abuse, and focused attention on the plight of those who live in poverty and do not have recourse to drug-rehabilitation centres and other measures effective in the treatment of addicts.

Dealing in Death looks at the global and local drugs culture, the predicament of Ellen Pakkies and other mothers like her, and an impoverished community and the apartheid laws that gave birth to it.

In 1980’s apartheid Cape Town, five-year-old Desiree-Anne is grappling with how she’s going to turn her tar baby doll’s skin into sweet, soft lily-white. What she has learnt is that Whites are better than "everyone else". She doesn’t know how to force her father to stop drinking or gambling or make her mother love her or get the boys and men to stop touching her in secret. She learns how to soothe the pain: through secret masturbation and lying.

As she grows up, she begins to understand the rules of living in her depressed family as well as in her fractured community.

In her teens, laden with the awkwardness of bushy, unruly hair, braces, and a body shorter and rounder than a Womble – and now firmly planted in a 'White School', Desiree-Anne is forced to confront her ‘Coloured identity crisis’. She turns to self-harm, disordered eating, the thrill of petty theft and escapism through books and acting. Although she wins a place to study drama at UCT, sensing her parents cannot afford the tuition, she opts to go to the UK where she gets lost in bars, clubs and pills. On her return to South Africa she embraces the “free love” Ecstasy trance club scene but when she meets Darren, a heroin addict, she turns to needles. Her search for love and acceptance descends into a self-destructive spiral as an intravenous smack addict.

This is a harrowing memoir on the darkness of addiction, but it is also a touching and sometimes humorous account of a little-girl-turned-woman’s deep need and reckless pursuit for love. When Desiree-Anne finally finds recovery years later, she uncovers her real voice to talk and write about things that were previously left unspoken.

There are a lot of good things about getting older. When you’re young you want everyone to like you and to make an impression. When you’re old you don’t give a damn.' Kate Turkington is fearless and fun, even now in her 80s. From the war-worn East End of London to raising a young family in a remote part of eastern Nigeria and building a career as one of SA's most loved broadcasters, Kate's story is remarkable and revealing. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You will cheer. You may well be shocked.

In 2008 is Suid-Afrika tot in sy fondamente geskud deur die omstrede Reitz-video-voorval aan die Universiteit van die Vrystaat. In dié video onderwerp vier wit mansstudente vyf swart werkers aan sogenaamde keuringstoetse vir koshuisplasing. Na videobeelde van hoe die werkers kos moes eet waarin daar klaarblyklik geürineer is, het rassespanning op die kampus opgevlam en stemme van protes wêreldwyd opgeklink.

Om die situasie te help beredder, het die universiteit vir Rudi Buys as versoeningskonsultant gewerf, waarna hy as studentedekaan aangestel is. Buys se werk by die universiteit sou uiteindelik simbolies word van ’n feller konflik in Suid-Afrika – tussen versoening en ’n dreigende rassestryd, ou en nuwe denkwyses, hoop en wanhoop.

Hierdie boek fokus op “tussenin-wees”. Die verhale van vier studenteleiers uit daardie onstuimige tydperk, asook die ingrypings wat onderneem is, word belig. Vir Buys was die proses by Kovsies ook ’n geleentheid om van sy eie Afrikaner-verlede sin te maak. Die gebeure by die universiteit illustreer dat Afrikaners, in hulle strewe om hul eie verlede met ’n toekoms in die land te versoen, oor die potensiaal beskik om ware brugbouers te wees en medeargitekte te word van ’n nierassige toekoms.

Brugbouers bied waardevolle lesse vir elkeen wat ernstig is oor aktiewe burgerskap en sinvolle transformasie in Suid-Afrika.

Just add rice is about Taiwanese cuisine, which seeks balance and harmony in taste, texture and nutritional value. But it’s also about home cooking, about familiarity and comfort and celebrating culture – recipes that connect the author to her parents when they lived in another city and in a distant country.

- Delicious, nutritious food on a budget.

- Comprehensive list of need-to-have pantry items for cooking Taiwanese and Chinese food.

- East Asian ingredients that are available to the South African market, with suggested substitutions.

- Essential information on traditional Chinese dining etiquette, customs and traditions.

- Simple recipes for home cooks.

- East Asians can enjoy their first locally produced cookbook with stories that reflect relatable culture and culinary heritage.

- Anyone who is interested in Chinese home cooking, food and South African food heritage.

'I was made in Coffee Bay. Right there on the beach, in the sand.'

From the opening lines, we are drawn in and engrossed by this startling memoir of a singular childhood. Suzan is adopted as a newborn in the late 1960s into a seemingly loving and welcoming family living in Pietermaritzburg. But Suzan is set on a collision course with, most particularly, her adoptive mother, and society, from her very beginning. Suzan's relationship with her mother is fraught with drama, which veers over into a level of emotional abuse and needless cruelty that is shocking.

At the age of thirteen, Suzan is sent to a place of safety as a ward of the state, effectively 'orphaning' her. From there, she spirals out of control – fighting to survive in a world of other neglected, abandoned and abused children. She becomes a 'runner', escaping at every opportunity from her various places of confinement, grabbing her schooling in snatches, living on the edges of a drug and prostitution underworld, finding love wherever she can.

Suzan’s young life was the stuff of movies, but it is her writing, in a voice that is unforgettable and true, that transforms her memories into something magical rarely matched in South African literature. A new classic.

When the Cradock Four's Fort Calata was murdered by agents of the apartheid state in 1985, his son Lukhanyo was only three years old. Thirty-one years later Lukhanyo, now a journalist, becomes one of the SABC Eight when he defies Hlaudi Motsoeneng's reign of censorship at the public broadcaster by writing an open letter that declares: "my father didn't die for this".

Now, with his wife Abigail, Lukhanyo brings to life the father he never knew and investigates the mystery that surrounds his death despite two high-profile inquests.

Join them in a poignant and inspiring journey into the history of a remarkable family that traces the struggle against apartheid beginning with Fort's grandfather, Rivonia trialist and ANC Secretary-General Rev James Calata.

‘Met die middagson kom die lugspieëlings wat aan die vallei sy naam gegee het: Deception Valley. Dan skuil alles wat asemhaal in die koelte van ’n matjarra, rug na die wind gedraai. In die lang geelwit gras lê die leeus uitgestrek en slaap. Net die vlakvarke draf stertorent nader vir ’n modderbad.’

Annelize Slabbert was ’n joernalis in Johannesburg en haar man, Gerard, ’n apteker. Stedelinge. Toe word hulle moeg vir die lewe in die stad, die spitsverkeer, die gebrek aan stilte en sterre. En hulle volg die krom wandelpad na Die Droom van ’n landelike idille met skape en groen gras. Tot, uiteindelik, in die son en sand van die Sentraal-Kalahari in Botswana waar hulle ’n vierster-lodge bestuur. Wat kan dan nou verkeerd loop? 'n Ware verhaal, uitstekend vertel, skreeusnaaks en aangrypend.