Jean Doyle, A Portrait is a glorious tribute to one of South Africa’s quietest artists. This part-biography, part critique explores how Jean has formed, shaped, forged and polished her career. Frequently told through her private sculpture notes, it goes beneath the layers of bronze and clay to the inspirational heart of her work, tracing her artistic journey. It celebrates the freshness, simplicity, intelligence, unmistakable sense of humour and, strikingly, the modest humility with which Jean Doyle has emerged as one of the greatest story-telling South African artists of our time.

In June of 2010, William Kentridge asked Denis Hirson to join him in a public conversation at the opening of Cinq Thèmes, the artist’s retrospective exhibition at the Jeu du Paume in Paris. So fruitful was this event that the two decided to have further conversations, public and private, whenever the time and the occasion seemed right. Nine engagements followed, allowing them to explore at great length the many issues and themes arising from Kentridge’s work. These conversations, in which a writer and an artist grapple with the enormous complexities of making art, grow out of a friendship that stretches back to the 1980s and that is deeply entwined in the fortunes of the city where they both grew up and the country that is the wellspring of their work.

Born in Cambridge in 1951, Denis Hirson lived in South Africa until the age of twenty-two, studying social anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. In 1975 he settled in France, where he has worked as an actor and lecturer at the École Polytechnique. He has written seven books, almost all of them at the frontier between prose and poetry and concerned with memories of South Africa in the time of apartheid. The most recent of these is the novel The Dancing and the Death on Lemon Street. He has also assembled and edited three anthologies of South African writing, including In the Heat of Shadows: South African poetry 1996–2013. Ma langue au chat, a book in French about the delight and torture experienced by an Anglophone when speaking and writing in French, is forthcoming from Les Éditions du Seuil in October 2017.

William Kentridge was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1955. He is a graphic artist, filmmaker and theatre artist renowned for his humanist and poetic perspective on apartheid, colonialism and totalitarianism, and on their lingering effects. Best known for his allegorical animations of charcoal drawings that he erases and appends frame by frame, Kentridge has explored disciplines ranging from sculpture to books, stereoscope to opera. His works are included in numerous international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Modern, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Albertina Museum, Vienna. His acclaimed production of Wozzeck travels to the Metropolitan Opera, New York, for the 2019–20 season.

Twaalf ongelooflike vroue wat ’n verskil maak tussen die bendes, die werkloosheid en die koeëls. Atlantis is steeds die verlore stad, maar hierdie twaalf vroue se verhale inspireer.

Hulle het besluit om nie moed op te gee nie. Hulle stories is dié van moed, optimisme en inspirasie. Dit is ’n moetlees vir almal wat glo dat liefde en geloof ’n verskil kán maak.

Atlantis aan die Weskus was die breinkind van ’n vorige regering se “desentralisasiebeleid” – maar is tans die toonvenster van ontheemding. Uit hierdie wanhoop, brand dié twaalf vroue se stories soos fakkelligte in ’n lang, donker nag.

Hulle is: Francis Brown, Mary-Ann Cedras, Chrissie Cloete, Mandy Jonker, Christine Lewis, Sylvia Losper, Lenie Maya, Carol Muller, Sillene Oppel, Olivia Pharo, Mary Tenggren en Rachael Watson.

In haar bykans 35 jaar het Shéri Brynard merkwaardige mylpale bereik ten spyte van die feit dat sy as baba met Trisomie-21-Downsindroom gediagnoseer is. Sy vertel hoe die liefde en aanvaarding van diegene naaste aan haar, veral haar ma, Susette, haar gevorm het.

Sy deel met die leser die opwindende avonture op haar pad, die seerkry, vrees, en verliese (die grootste hiervan die dood van haar pa, Jerry), asook die werklikhede waarmee sy as ’n volwassene met Downsindroom gekonfronteer word. Dan gesels haar ma oor ’n lewe in die skaduwee van ’n kind met Downsindroom. Sy deel openhartig haar geloofstryd toe sy gehoor het haar kind het Downsindroom en haar en haar dogter se reis die onbekende in. Shéri – Nes ek is is ’n boek wat grense verskuif, want soos Shéri tereg vra: “Wat is nou eintlik normaal?”

Dié boek herinner die leser juis dat ons as kinders van God elkeen ons volle potensiaal kan bereik, ongeag die uitdagings waarvoor ons te staan kom.

Shéri Brynard has reached many remarkable milestones, although she was born with Down Syndrome. She talks about how love and acceptance from her family and friends formed her. She tells of her adventures, her pain and the harsh realities she has to face as an adult with Down Syndrome. Her mother tells the tale of living in Shéri’s shadow, speaking without holding back about her crisis of faith when she heard that her daughter had Down Syndrome. A touching tale.

In her much anticipated memoir, Sisonke Msimang writes about her exile childhood in Zambia and Kenya, young adulthood and college years in North America, and returning to South Africa in the euphoric 1990s. She reflects candidly on her discontent and disappointment with present-day South Africa but also on her experiences of family, romance, and motherhood, with the novelist’s talent for character and pathos.

Militant young comrades dance off the pages of the 1970s Lusaka she invokes, and the heady and naive days of just-democratic South Africa in the 1990s are as vividly painted. Her memoir is at heart a chronicle of a coming-of-age, and while well-known South African political figures appear in these pages, it is an intimate story, a testament to family bonds and sisterhood.

Sisonke Msimang is one of the most assured and celebrated voices commenting on the South African present – often humorously; sometimes deeply movingly – and this book launches her to an even broader audience.

A deeply moving and powerful biography of Fezekile Kuzwayo – better known as Khwezi – the woman the ANC tried to forget.

In August 2016, following the announcement of the results of South Africa’s heated municipal election, four courageous young women interrupted Jacob Zuma’s victory address, bearing placards asking us to ‘Remember Khwezi’. Before being dragged away by security guards, their powerful message had hit home and the public was reminded of the tragic events of 2006, when Zuma was on trial for the rape of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, better known as Khwezi. In the aftermath of the trial, which saw Zuma acquitted, Khwezi was vilified by his many supporters and forced to take refuge outside of South Africa.

Ten years later, just two months after this protest had put Khwezi’s struggle back into the minds and hearts of South Africans, Khwezi passed away … But not before she had slipped back into South Africa and started work with Redi Tlhabi on a book about her life. How as a young girl living in ANC camps in exile she was raped by the very men who were supposed to protect her; how as an adult she was driven once again into exile, suffering not only at the hands of Zuma’s devotees but under the harsh eye of the media.

In sensitive and considered prose, journalist Redi Tlhabi breathes life into a woman for so long forced to live in the shadows. In giving agency back to Khwezi, Tlhabi is able to focus a broader lens on the sexual abuse that abounded during the ‘struggle’ years, abuse which continues to plague women and children in South Africa today.

Piet Matipa is jonk, swart, gay en Afrikaans. Sy rubrieke in Beeld is baie gewild omdat dit aan ’n sonderlinge lewensuitkyk uitdrukking gee. Hy praat vanuit ’n perspektief wat jy nie sommer in Suid-Afrika kry nie. Sy siening van die wêreld is gevorm deur interessante bestemmings waar sy lewenspad aangedoen het. As skolier aan Hoërskool Waterkloof en student aan die Pukke het Piet uitgeblink. Sy skryftande is geslyp as joernalis in Beeld se misdaadkantoor en as sepieskrywer vir 7de Laan , waar hy steeds werksaam is. Nie sleg vir iemand wat in ’n kinderhuis grootgeword het nie!

Afrikaans het sy lê op ’n unieke manier in Piet se mond gekry. En vir één ding deins hy nie terug nie: dit is om sy mond verby te praat. In Dwarsklap laat Piet hom uit oor aangeleenthede wat alle Suid-Afrikaners raak. Misdaad en taxi-bestuurders is groot klippe in die skoen. Wenke oor gewigsverlies word gegee, en ook hoe om ’n ontkleedanser by ’n henneparty te kry. En oor liefdesavonture kan jy vir Piet min vertel, veral wanneer sosiale media betrokke is.

’n Hoogs vermaaklike boek wat die donkerte van die lewe in ligte skakerings laat glim.

Meet the rebels, artists, troublemakers, athletes, dancing queens and freedom fighters that shaped our past – and are changing our future.

An A To Z Of Amazing South African Women tells the stories of 26 trailblazing South African women through accessible stories and illustrations that are as bright and bold as the women they depict. From Fatima Meer to Caster Semenya, Natalie du Toit to Dope St Jude, this is a book about women who ask too many questions, who defy injustice, who refuse to take no for an answer. It is a celebration of the courage and determination of the activists, scientists and storytellers who have gone before us – as well as a recognition of the everyday heroism of ordinary South African woman doing extraordinary things.

The book takes its inspiration from the worldwide bestseller An A To Z Of Rad American Women and is the work of writer Ambre Nicolson and illustrator Jaxon Hsu, a husband and wife team based in Cape Town.

The Fifth Mrs Brink is Karina M. Szczurek’s memoir of her life before, during and after her marriage to André P. Brink.

Polish-born Karina was twenty-seven when she met the acclaimed writer, forty-two years her senior, and they spent a decade together. Here she chronicles their relationship, from their first encounter in Vienna, Austria, and moving across continents to be with each other, to finding calm and stability in their married life in Cape Town, and finally facing the challenges of André’s deteriorating health in the last year of his life.

This soul-baring account is also the story of two interwoven writing lives, Karina’s burgeoning and André’s in its final phase. It is a diary of creative dissolution and knitting back together, a homage to a marriage reality tragically cut short but also to a love to last a lifetime.

With a career spanning over 40 years, Marah Louw is counted among South Africa’s musical and entertainment industry royalty and has a powerful and memorable story to tell. This book is the reader’s front-row ticket to the joys, sadness, triumphs and setbacks that have been part of this legend’s life. Even though she is a celebrity, her story aims to show that stars, no matter how bright, are human too. It also delves into her family secrets and her search for truth.

As one of South Africa’s most iconic entertainers, Marah has had an illustrious career. She performed at the Mandela Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium and she sang at the Newsmaker of the Year Awards, presented to Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk, and in honour of the late Chris Hani. She appeared with Nelson Mandela during his visit to Glasgow in 1993 and sang at George Square and The Royal Concert Hall. In 1994, she sang at the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela and the Freedom Day Celebrations at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

In 2001, Marah produced the successful musical concert Surf, which featured top South African artists including Hugh Masekela. Marah translated the music of The Lion King into Zulu for the Walt Disney Corporation and performed the theme song Circle of Life in Zulu. She was also an Idols judge from 2003 until 2010.

She had a lead role on the SABC2 television soap opera Muvhango and has acted in numerous musicals, stage plays and feature films. She is currently acting in the Mzansi Magic telenovela The Queen.

The head of a business empire, Harry Oppenheimer played an influential role in twentieth century South Africa, a role that is celebrated by some and condemned by others.

This book investigates Oppenheimer’s political thinking, drawing from his speeches over the years. It looks at his views on liberalism, apartheid, socialism, sanctions, trade unions, education, geopolitics, the press and the legacy of Cecil John Rhodes.

Jan Smuts, een van die bekendste Suid-Afrikaners van die twintigste eeu, bly 'n omstrede figuur. Was hy een van die uitstaande staatsmanne van sy tyd of dalk 'n verraaier van Afrikanerbelange en moontlik 'n rassis? In hierdie boek word generaal J.C. Smuts herwaardeer. Smuts se rol as intellektueel (onder meer vader van holisme), militere strateeg (hy het 'n leidende rol tydens drie oorloe gespeel), politikus (vir 'n halwe eeu in die "era van die generaals" was hy prominent) en staatsman (hy was 'n dryfkrag agter die vorming van die Unie van Suid-Afrika, die Britse Statebond, die Volkebond en die Verenigde Nasies) word beoordeel. Altesaam 20 outeurs het help skryf. Soos Paul Kruger aan die einde van die 19de eeu en Nelson Mandela aan die einde van die 20ste eeu, het Jan Smuts in die eerste helfte van die 20ste eeu bo sy tydgenote uitgetroon as 'n leier van buitengewone formaat. Sy staatsmanskap is internasionaal gehuldig. Tog het die NP- en ANC-regerings sy bydraes vir dekades lank onderspeel, omdat dit nie hul Afrikaner- en swart nasionalistiese weergawes van die Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis onderskraag het nie. Dit was hoofsaaklik Engelssprekende skrywers, Suid-Afrikaners en buitelanders, wat Smuts se gedagtenis in stand gehou het. 'n Herwaardering van Smuts vanuit 'n Afrikaanse gesigspunt sal dus 'n leemte in die literatuur oor die geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika in die eerste helfte van die 20ste eeu vul. Vandag het ons 'n beter perspektief op sy bydraes binne die historiese konteks van sy tyd. Nuwe getuienis wat voortdurend aan die lig kom, maak dit ook moontlik om 'n meer ingeligte opinie te formuleer oor vrae rondom Smuts.

Bending The Rules is a colourful collection of anecdotes from Rafique Gangat’s extraordinary life.

South Africa’s first diplomat of colour, Gangat first worked for Foreign Affairs under the NP and then for the ANC government, straddling the transition. This book documents Gangat’s battles against bigotry and prejudice, but also includes a healthy dose of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll: illicit liaisons across the colour bar, experiments with dagga, and ground-breaking ventures in music and radio.

Pushing Boulders tells the extraordinary story of a Cape Town man born in an old police station during apartheid, who struggles to overcome immense political and social odds to become one of the first people ever to graduate with master’s degrees from five of the world’s top universities, including Harvard, MIT and Oxford. At the height of his successful international business career, at the age of 40, he foregoes wealth and status, sells his Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Jaguar and other luxury cars, to pursue his mission to use education to enable and inspire others to thrive. ​

With frequent references to his diaries and letters, the book is written with frankness and candour so often absent in autobiographies. It offers readers a rare insight into the life of a uniquely talented and accomplished person, revealing his doubts and heartaches as well as the secrets to his immense ability to pick himself up and soldier on. The book reveals how his compassion for others changed his life and gave it purpose.

Pushing Boulders is a story about pursuing dreams. It shows that, with self-belief and resilience, you can push aside the boulders that block your path to success. It tells a powerful and inspirational story that will leave you believing that even your most outrageous dreams are possible, and leave you energised to begin pursuing them.

Meer as ’n honderd jaar na die laaste skote in die Anglo-Boereoorlog geklap het, word genl. Christiaan de Wet steeds bewonder as onverbiddelike bittereinder, die held wat tot die einde toe volhard het. Sy jonger broer, Piet, word onthou as die joiner. In Broedertwis probeer Albert Blake verstaan waarom hulle lynreg in stryd met mekaar gekom het. Wie was reg? Christiaan, wat ten alle koste die vryheidstryd wou voer, of Piet, wat ’n einde aan die smart en lyding van die oorlog wou bring?

In 1990 two South African mothers were faced with an impossible choice, one that no mother should ever have to make. Should they surrender the child they had lovingly raised in order to get back the baby they had given birth to?

Megs Clinton-Parker and Sandy Dawkins chose nurture over nature, simply unable to give up their two-year-old sons who were switched at birth at an East Rand hospital. Instead they decided to try to make their strange relationship work, although they lived in different cities, 500km apart. And they decided to sue the South African state, whose negligence had altered the fates of two families forever. Robin Dawkins and Gavin Clinton-Parker grew up living each other’s lives, brothers-but-not-brothers, acutely aware that their mothers’ hearts were torn.

Unable to escape the consequences of the swap, Robin decided at the age of 15 that it was time to claim what was rightfully his, adding a further twist to this bitter saga.

“Do you really think you can clean up bloody scenes like these?”. “Many people start similar businesses, but they never last.” This was the reaction of sceptical policemen and security officers when they first encountered Eileen de Jager (39) and Roelien Schutte (37). But 15 years and about 7 000 crime scenes later, the Blood Sister’s business, Crime Scene Clean-up, is still flourishing. And they have never had a dissatisfied client.

Eileen and Roelien are not only known as the Blood Sisters because they are biological sisters, but also due to the fact that cleaning bloody crime scenes is their day job. Suicides. Homicides. The most gruesome farm murders. But crime is not always involved.

Sometimes the sisters clean up hoarders’ homes – often packed to the ceiling with junk – at other times they help to restore damage caused by fire or floods.

Allister Sparks joined his first newspaper at age 17 and was pitched headlong into the vortex of South Africa’s stormy politics. The Sword And The Pen is the story of how as a journalist he observed, chronicled and participated in his country’s unfolding drama for more than 66 years, covering events from the premiership of DF Malan to the presidency of Jacob Zuma, witnessing at close range the rise and fall of apartheid and the rise and crisis of the new South Africa.

In trenchant prose, Sparks has written a remarkable account of both a life lived to its full as well as the surrounding narrative of South Africa from the birth of apartheid, the rise of political opposition, the dawn of democracy, right through to the crisis we are experiencing today.

Mark Pilgrim has wanted to ‘be on radio’ since he was thirteen years old, yet it always seemed like an unobtainable dream. It took a life-threatening illness to motivate him to pursue his passion.

At the age of eighteen his radio dream was on the back burner. Mark had just completed the first year of a B.Com degree at university and had secured a bursary to complete his studies. Things were looking good. Then the blow fell: he was diagnosed with testicular cancer. After surgery and throughout months of chemotherapy his initial despair was transformed into determination. He found the inner strength to fight the illness, change his career direction, and to make his lifelong dream a reality.

Beyond The Baldness is a personal account of Mark’s journey of determination, following every opportunity to audition for radio and television. From the humble beginnings of living in a trailer park, today Mark is one of South Africa’s best-known and most recognisable personalities, having deejayed on South Africa’s biggest radio stations and hosted some of the most memorable television shows like ‘Big Brother’ and SA’s biggest ever game show ‘The Power of 10’. His voice is also used in countless radio and television commercials.

As a motivational speaker, Mark spends a lot of his time engaging with delegates at conferences, chatting about his experience with cancer as well as the sudden heart attack he had at the age of 38.

His positive approach to life is inspirational and it will encourage everyone who reads this book to chase their dreams!

Regardt se lewe het glad nie naby God begin het nie, maar hy het beslis die pad na Hom gevind. Hy vertel van sy vroegste kinderjare in Bez Valley tot die punt waar sy lewe op die kruin van sy loopbaan, ná ’n onverskillige lewe met drank en ’n vergeefse soeke na ’n dieper sin, heeltemal uitmekaarval. Hy het sy gesin en huis verloor, maar een oggend met ’n babelaas en trane wat oor sy wange loop ’n onvergeetlike ontmoeting met God gehad wat sy hele lewe vir goed verander het.

Regardt is die merkwaardige verhaal van ’n man wat nooit sy passie vir die lewe en vir rolprente verloor het nie, maar wat op ’n swaar manier moes leer dat toewyding en gehoorsaamheid aan God die vreugde en sin bring wat hom opgewonde maak oor sy lewe. Vandag is hy gelukkig getroud met Clara Joubert.

Die lig van die silwerdoek skyn weer op hom en oor sy lewe sê hy met oortuiging: “Dis nie luck nie – net genade.”

The Springbok rugby captain, over more than a century, has represented many things to many South Africans. He has united, and he has divided. He has thrilled, he has disappointed. He has inspired, he has disheartened. He has triumphed, he has failed. But he has always had an impact.

In this revealing narrative, Edward Griffiths and Stephen Nell depict the men who have been able to call themselves ‘Springbok Captain’ through their backgrounds, triumphs and disappointments. Relive the heyday of rugby legends Bennie Osler, Danie Craven, Hennie Muller, Johan Claassen, Naas Botha, Francois Pienaar, Gary Teichmann, Joost van der Westhuizen, Andre Vos and others.

Now fully updated with the accounts of Bobby Skinstad, Victor Matfield and Jean de Villiers, The Springbok Captains is the epic story that lies at the heart of South African rugby.

When Errol Tobias was selected for the Springbok rugby team there was an immediate uproar. He became our first black Springbok in 1980 – in the middle of South Africa’s isolation from international sport and growing protest action against the government. In Errol Tobias: Pure Gold he talks openly about his sporting career: from childhood to the great moments in the green and gold. Here are the joys, the losses, and the controversy.

The truth behind legendary rugby matches is revealed, such as the South American tour where Tobias broke a world record, and the disastrous New Zealand tour that was overshadowed by protests against the Springboks. He writes about his close friendship with fellow Springbok legend Rob Louw, and the unwavering support of Danie ‘Doc’ Craven. Tobias also gives his opinion on the quota system of today.

Many others have talked about Errol Tobias and his effect on South African rugby. Here is his side of the story.

In Die Ou Met Die Snor By Die Bar vertel die superster-rapper Jack Parow van sy lewe en al sy wilde, mal avonture.

Die storie begin agter die Boereworsgordyn en maak draaie in plekke soos Onrusrivier, The Lollipop Lounge in Randburg, Mitchells Plain, België, Nederland, Londen, Los Angeles, Hollywood en Moskou.

Daar is sappige staaltjies oor wilde partytjies, warm bokkies, dodgy plekke, trance-paarties en avonture in jacuzzi’s, en hy lig ook die sluier oor sy ervarings met onder andere rofstoeiers, skoonheidskoninginne, polisiemanne, hipsters in nagklubs, ’n sanger wat hom wou bliksem, ooms wat hom van verhoë gegooi wil hê en ’n stewige tannie wat met ’n krieketkolf op hom afstorm.

Parow beantwoord ook taai vrae wat al deur mense aan hom gevra is, soos: Is dit waar wat hulle sê van ’n man met ’n lang pet? En: Hoe kry jy dit reg om jou snor so te hou dat girls dit onweerstaanbaar vind? Hy vertel die stories agter sy gewildste songs en draai nie doekies om oor wat hy van ’n klomp goed dink nie, soos die ‘ou’ Afrikaans en die ‘nuwe’ Afrikaans, die lewe in Suid-Afrika en wat dit regtig beteken om ’n rapper te wees. Die boek bevat ook die lirieke van baie van sy treffers en talle foto’s wat nog nooit voorheen gesien is nie.

Koos Kombuis se outobiografie het al meer as tien drukke beleef. Hierdie heruitgawe verskyn op openbare aandrang.

Sy ganse lewensverhaal, Koos se manier om homself te versoen met sy verlede. Hy vertel van sy heel eerste openbare optrede (op die ouderdom van ongeveer vyf sekondes), van sy jeugjare as hedonis, van die paradokse & die pyn, van hoe lekker die lewe nou vir hom is, van die goue jare wat nog voorlê . . .

O ja, natuurlik ook van die seks & drugs & boeremusiek wat al sy pad gekruis het.