When the red Fiat pulled out in front of Adelaide, she squeezed her bike's brakes so hard that she left 50 feet of skid marks along the highway. The last thing she remembers is being lifted into the ambulance and someone saying, "Her face is peeled off." She spent five days in a medically-induced coma, during which surgeons picked glass from her face, reconstructed bones and inserted a stomach tube. She spent another six days unable to talk, at times gasping for air, enduring leech treatments to keep her necrotizing lip alive, and fearing a crippling bipolar episode. Without knowing what neurological damage or permanent disfigurement she'd be left with, her boyfriend Kennett proposed to Adelaide daily in the hospital, until she became conscious. But her recovery would extend far beyond the hospital and the visible physical injuries. DEGLOVED is about perseverance as well as failure, written to give hope to those living with mental illness, and anyone who has had a traumatic event thrust upon them, which threatened to destroy their lives.

Forty great South Africans celebrate their mothers and grandmothers. Leaders from the worlds of politics, business, music, sport, education and literature pay homage to the women who have influenced and inspired them to lead exceptional lives. Mac Maharaj remembers how his mother served everyone with unfailing courtesy and recognition of their dignity. Desmond Tutu hopes he can resemble his mother spiritually and emulate her generosity and kindness, while Pam Golding shares her mom’s good advice: ‘Keep dancing and you’ll stay out of trouble!’ Who was it that raised the likes of Sibongile Khumalo or Antjie Krog to extraordinary achievement? Or Nelson Mandela, Lukas Radebe, JM Coetzee, Helen Suzman, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Miriam Makeba, Elana Meyer, Ahmed Kathrada and many more? Much of the answer lies in these heart-warming tributes.