A majestic biography of two young geniuses who merged their talents to create one of the greatest bodies of music in history.

John & Paul begins in 1957, when two teenagers in suburban Liverpool meet and decide to play rock n'roll together. It ends twenty-three years later, when one of them is murdered. In between, we see them become global stars, create countless indelible songs, and play a central role in shaping the modern world.

Lennon and McCartney were more than friends, rivals or collaborators. They were intimates who both had the fabric of their world ruptured at a young age, and who longed to make emotional connections; with each other, and with audiences. The pop song was a vessel into which they poured feelings of grief and euphoria and everything in between. When they couldn't speak what they felt, they sang it. After the break-up of their group, they maintained a musical dialogue at a distance, in songs full of recrimination, regret, and affection.

Ian Leslie traces the twists and turns of their relationship through the music it produced and offers rich insights into the nature of creativity, collaboration and human connection. Drawing on recently released footage and recordings, this is a startlingly fresh take on two of the greatest icons in music history.

Leslie's majestic and wildly enjoyable biography will make us see and hear Lennon and McCartney anew.

The brilliant autobiography from the ‘saviour of Nike’

If you’re a sneaker head, you know him as the Savior of Nike. If you’ve watched Air you saw Matt Damon’s portrayal of the man who discovered Michael Jordan and how he revolutionized the payment structure of endorsements for athletes. Legends and Soles tells Sonny’s story – his blind-sided firing by Nike Chairman Phil Knight, the landmark 2021 Supreme Court decision that upended big-time college sports, the countless days and nights of watching athletes compete, and so much more that only Sonny can retell.

Written in collaboration with six-time New York Times bestselling author Armen Keteyian, Legends and Soles provides truth to storylines and headlines including:

· Vaccaro’s pivotal role in the never-before-told story of the courting and signing of Michael Jordan
· How Nike, at the behest of an embittered Knight, went as far as having the Portland FBI investigate Vaccaro who was working for archival Adidas on a RICO charge of corporate espionage
· His close relationships with NBA superstars Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett and Tracy McGrady and Hall of Fame coaches Jerry Tarkanian of UNLV and John Thompson of Georgetown
· The high stakes drama behind the O’Bannon lawsuit that changed the entire landscape in college sports
· Filled with in-depth stories and photos illuminating some of Sonny’s most treasured career memories, Legends and Soles is the long-awaited memoir of a giant in the story of American sports.

In the heart of a village untouched by the world’s chaos, five-year-old Popina took solace in the simple joys of childhood – climbing mango trees, chasing baby baboons, and exploring the fields. But her innocence was shattered in an instant when a group of strangers invaded the village, bringing with them a terror that a young girl could never have imagined.
 
The Smallest Ones  is a harrowing and powerful account of survival and resilience in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 2000s. Popina, her family and friends were captured by rebel soldiers and were subjected to torture and rape. After several years of captivity, Popina and her older sister managed to escape, and began an epic journey all the way to South Africa. But even there, their nightmare was not over.
 
Written with raw emotion and unflinching honesty,  The Smallest Ones  takes readers on a journey through the darkest corners of human experience, yet it is also a testament to the enduring power of hope and the will to survive. This is not just a story of tragedy, but a poignant exploration of the human spirit’s capacity to endure and overcome.
 
After eventually finding refuge in a children’s home in Despatch in the Eastern Cape, Popina started building the life she dreamt of as a child. Having had no schooling, she now found herself in a classroom and held a pen for the first time. And so began her journey to education and freedom.

Alex la Guma was a major twentieth century South African novelist. His first novel, A Walk in the Night, in 1966 brought him instant recognition as a pioneering writer on the African continent. Its ‘startling realism and accurate imagery’ drew high praise from his contemporaries. Wole Soyinka, later awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o . The critic and writer, Lewis Nkosi, likewise, compared La Guma’s intense and sombre vision of the individual in society to that of Dostoevsky. La Guma was also an important political figure. As leader of the South African Coloured People’s Organisation and a communist, he was charged with treason, banned, house arrested and eventually forced into exile. At the time of his death in 1985 he was serving as chief representative of the African National Congress in the Caribbean.

Published on the centenary of Alex La Guma’s birth on 20 February 1925, The Early Writings of Alex La Guma contains a selection of his early work as a journalist and short story writer, before he became a published novelist and was forced into exile. It provides unique cameos of South African life and politics during a turbulent time in the country’s history – the late 1950s and early 1960s, the years around Sharpeville – at the same time giving us insight into the making of a novelist. The ‘hidden’ world of Alex La Guma – material, social, emotional, political and intellectual – at a time when he was developing into a serious writer, is revealed. Many of the themes in his fiction are first encountered and developed in these early newspaper articles, providing useful material for literary scholars seeking to understand the progression of his work.

A reviewer wrote that this book, like Alex La Guma’s novels, captures not only the misery of poverty and oppression in South Africa, but also the rich song of everyday life beneath the surface. It reads easily as fiction and adds significantly to our understanding of popular culture in Cape Town, as well as to the social and political history of the city. When asked what one of his novels was about, La Guma – born and bred in District 6 – replied, ‘Ag, just about the folks back home’. La Guma peels off, as if with a scalpel, the glossy covers of the Cape’s tourist-brochure ‘liberalism’ to reveal the hard realities faced by the majority of its (non-) citizens: This is District Six talking. It is unmistakable – terse, racy, humorous, as convincing as truth.’

La Guma’s insider accounts of contemporary politics also help with the recovery of important aspects of the history of the South African liberation movement.

“With a woman’s ambition to lead comes the risk of being undermined, maligned, sidelined, or even physically attacked simply because women are still viewed as ‘the weaker sex’ … being a relatively young female leader in a patriarchal society is fraught with challenges; the first of which is actually getting into office.”

This captivating book is a testament of the power that lies within every woman. Linda urges every reader to embrace their own dreams, overcome obstacles, and create a brighter future for themselves and their communities.

She tells the story of her journey from her upbringing as a child to a chance encounter with a classmate who made her realise that just putting oneself forward is half the battle in becoming a leader. Linda’s story is intertwined with political events in Zambia from 2011 to 2021, which saw the country on the path towards democratic decline, and the role she and other activists played trying to restore Zambia’s democracy.

Her story touches on difficult topics such as losing a child, mental health, and the sexism faced by women in leadership. It ends with a list of lessons that she has learnt over the years and a call to arms for more women to take up the call to leadership.

On the 50th anniversary of American Track and Field icon Steve Prefontaine’s tragic death comes an essential reappraisal of his life and legacy, a powerful work of narrative history exploring the forces and psychology that made Prefontaine great and separating the man from the myths.

In the fifty years since his tragic death in a car crash, Steve Prefontaine has towered over American distance running. One of the most recognizable and charismatic figures to ever run competitively in the United States, Prefontaine has endured as a source of inspiration and fascination—a talent who presaged the American running boom of the late 1970s and helped put Nike on the map as the brand’s first celebrity-athlete face.

Now on the anniversary of his untimely death, author Brendan O’Meara, host of the Creative Nonfiction podcast, offers a fresh, definitive retelling of Prefontaine’s life, revisiting one of the most enigmatic figures in American sports with a twenty-first-century lens. Through over a hundred and fifty original interviews with family, friends, teammates, and competitors, this long-overdue reappraisal of Prefontaine—the first such exhaustive treatment in almost thirty years—provides never-before-told stories about the unique talent, innovative mental strength, and personal struggles that shaped Prefontaine on and off the track. Bringing new depth to an athlete long eclipsed by his brash, aggressive running style and the heartbreak of his death at twenty-four, O’Meara finds the man inside the myth, scrutinizing a legacy that has shaped American sports culture for decades.

What emerges is a singular portrait of a distinctly American talent, a story written in the pines and firs of the Pacific Northwest back when running was more blue-collar love than corporate pursuit—the story of a runner whose short life casts a long, fast shadow.

In die oop ruimtes tussen sterre en swaartekrag sal jy Karlien vind waar sy kaalvoet en sonder pretensie by die Here sit. Daar waar sy met Hom kan gesels oor haar soeke en seer, want sy weet dat Hy gewillig en met deernis luister.

Karlien vertel van haar kronkelpaaie van pyn en verlies en hoe sy deur die jare daardie paaie gevleg met haar onwrikbare geloof gestap het. In hierdie poëtiese teks vol beeldspraak en vloeiende kreatiwiteit gesels sy oor kwesbare grepe uit haar lewe. Sy deel met die leser haar ondersoeke in die Woord, die suiwer leringe van Jesus, sielvolle gedigte, lirieke en diep persoonlike gewaarwordinge.

In Riviere in die wildernis leer ons Karlien ken soos nog nooit tevore nie.

In haar arms het sy al lewe, siekte en dood vasgehou en geleer hoe om, of die Here nou gee óf neem, steeds ’n halleluja te sing.

Op 13 Oktober 2021 is Suid-Afrika tot stilstand geruk deur die nuus oor dominee Liezel de Jager, geliefde leraar van die NG Kerk Suidkus in Amanzimtoti, KwaZulu-Natal, wat in die oprit van die pastorie vermoor is toe sy terugkeer van haar daaglikse oggenddraf saam met vriende. Dit was ondenkbaar dat ’n geestelike leier soos sy, wat ’n enorme impak op haar gemeenskap gehad het, so wreed weggeruk kon word.

Maar nog vreemder gebeure volg in die dae en jare na haar moord. Haar man, Werner, verdwyn skielik spoorloos en word later in ’n bedenklike toestand in ’n suikerrietplantasie gevind. Hy vermoed dat hy moontlik deur Liezel se moordenaars aangeval is. Benewens verskeie ander amper-noodlottige gebeure rondom Werner, is hy later ook in ’n ongeluk betrokke waar nog twee vroue dood is. Om alles te kroon, sloer die polisie twee jaar lank voordat hulle met die moordondersoek begin.

Intussen voer Liezel se ouers ’n volgehoue stryd om geregtigheid vir hul dogter te kry.

Dit loop uit op ’n suksesvolle hofsaak teen die minister van polisie en die Suid-Afrikaanse Polisiediens, met die gevolg dat Werner weens die moord op sy vrou in hegtenis geneem word, maar later onder misterieuse omstandighede in die hospitaal sterf. Die moord bly onopgelos.

From Douglas Waller, New York Times bestselling author of Wild Bill Donovan, an intimate and expertly researched biography of little-known early CIA leader Frank Wisner, whose behind-the-scenes influence on Cold War policy--and hundreds of highly secret anti-Soviet missions--resonates with the international crises we see today.

Frank Wisner was one of the most powerful men in 1950s Washington, though few knew it. Reporting directly to senior U.S. officials--his work largely hidden from Congress and the public-- Wisner masterminded some of the CIA’s most daring and controversial operations in the early years of the Cold War, commanding thousands of clandestine agents around the world.

Following an early career marked by exciting escapades as a key World War II spy under General William “Wild Bill” Donovan, Wisner quickly rose through the postwar intelligence ranks to lead a newly created top-secret unit tasked--under little oversight--with overseeing massive propaganda, economic warfare, sabotage, subversion, and guerrilla operations all over the world, including such daring initiatives as the CIA-backed coups in Iran and Guatemala.

But simultaneously, Wisner faced a demon few at the time understood: bipolar disorder. When this debilitating disease resulted in his breakdown and transfer to a mental hospital, the repercussions were felt throughout Washington’s highest levels of power.

Waller’s sensitive and exhaustively researched biography is the riveting story of both Frank Wisner as a national figure who inspired a cadre of future CIA secret warriors, and also an intimate and empathetic portrait of a man whose harrowing struggle with bipolar disorder makes his impressive accomplishments on the world stage even more remarkable.

'A split-second decision is all it takes. A decision that can change the course of a cricket match. Maybe even the course of your life.'

In Coming Home, Freddie Flintoff zeroes-in on the crucial moments that made him - some highly celebrated, others less well-known, away from the cameras, but all pivotal in shaping the man he is.

As a boy, growing up in Preston, Fred fell in love with the game of cricket. It gave him his route through life; out on the pitch he felt at home. Through his eyes we see him picking up a bat for the first time, his early years on the field; that incredible performance to win the Ashes against the Aussies in 2005; face-downs with rivals; run-ins with the media; the doctors telling him he can't continue to play. On and off the pitch, in and out of the spotlight, Fred tells the whole story.

After retiring, Fred thought he'd left the game behind, relaunching himself in the world of entertainment, but following the car crash that turned his life upside down, it was cricket to which he returned.

Coming Home is a reflection on a unique life, a story like no other, and a love letter to the game that made him. Honest, open, reflective and funny, like the man himself, this is Freddie Flintoff, in full, in his own words.

Mac Maharaj played a pivotal role in the liberation movement for nearly four decades, suffering brutal tortures and twelve years’ imprisonment on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela.

It was Maharaj who smuggled out the manuscript of Mandela’s autobiography and later re-entered South Africa to establish a political and military underground on a mission so secret that only those at the highest levels were even aware of its existence.

Drawing from extensive interviews with Maharaj over eleven years and hitherto unavailable documents, Padraig O’Malley vividly renders a true tale of heroism and a gripping insider’s look at the struggle for freedom in South Africa.