Dis die biografie wat nie 'n biografie is nie.

Daar is geen geraamtes uit kaste of skandes oor seks, dwelms en/of ruk-en-rol nie; geen verhoudingsintriges nie; vergeet ook van enige sensasionele openbarings. Niks waarin Kwêla of Pasella sou belangstel nie. Skinderstories was daar volop, en skinderbekke het altyd baie te sê gehad oor Franz Marx.

Sê Franz self: “Daar was soveel stories oor my, maar oor wie is daar nie? As dit ʼn gay ou is, het ek stories daaroor gehoor. As dit vrouens is, het ek gehoor ek het hulle bygekom in my kantoor. Dit het my nooit gepla nie, as jy jouself vir ʼn toffie uitgee, gaan die mense aan jou suig. Dít het ek altyd geweet, maar hulle het nooit die waarheid geweet nie. Hulle het nooit geweet ek het twee kinders grootgemaak nie, nooit geweet ek was getroud nie; nie geweet wie is my vriende nie, nie geweet met wie ek sosialiseer nie. Hulle het nooit geweet van my private lewe nie.”

Hierdie “biografie” - uit die perspektief van ʼn onwaarskynlike vertroueling - is ʼn verwerking van gesprekke met Franz (persoonlik en professioneel) deur die bekroonde akteur, skrywer en regisseur Chris Vorster. Dis ʼn vermaaklike ontdekkingsreis met ʼn leeftyd se wyshede en “leuens”.

The death of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela on 2 April this year unleashed a hailstorm of opinion. On one side, Winnie's legacy was under construction by the media and public in the shadow of her sanctified ex-husband, casting Winnie as history's loser.

Msimang - who in the last few years has reflected extensively on Winnie Madikizela-Mandela - stood on the side of a younger generation, particularly of black women, who sought to reclaim Ma Winnie's identity as an extraordinary woman and fierce political activist. Examining that early impulse, Msimang has written a succinct, razor-sharp book. It is a primer for young feminists, popular culture enthusiasts and those interested in the politics of memory, reconciliation and justice, and a book that is as much about a woman as it is about the country she left behind.

The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela is an astute examination of one of South Africa's most controversial political figures. It charts the rise and fall - and rise, again - of a woman who not only battled the apartheid regime, but the patriarchal character of the society that moulded her. In telling Ma Winnie's story, Sisonke Msimang demonstrates the vital link between reclaiming the lives of one complex woman, and activism aimed at restoring the dignity of all women.

A hair-raising account about the ins and outs of practising forensic pathology in Africa As a medical detective of the modern world, forensic pathologist Ryan Blumenthal's chief goal is to bring perpetrators to justice. He has performed thousands of autopsies, which have helped bring numerous criminals to book. In Autopsy he covers the hard lessons learnt as a rookie pathologist, as well as some of the most unusual cases he's encountered. During his career, for example, he has dealt with high-profile deaths, mass disasters, death by lightning and people killed by African wildlife. Blumenthal takes the reader behind the scenes at the mortuary, describing a typical autopsy and the instruments of the trade. He also shares a few trade secrets, like how to establish when a suicide is more likely to be a homicide. Even though they cannot speak, the dead have a lot to say - and Blumenthal is there to listen.

Award-winning actor, director, producer, and activist Kerry Washington shares the deeply moving journey of her life so far, and the bravely intimate story of discovering her truth.

While on a drive in Los Angeles, on a seemingly average afternoon, Kerry Washington received a text message that would send her on a life-changing journey of self-discovery. In an instant, her very identity was torn apart, with everything she thought she knew about herself thrown into question.

In Thicker Than Water, Washington gives readers an intimate view into both her public and private worlds - as an artist, an advocate, an entrepreneur, a mother, a daughter, a wife, a Black woman. Chronicling her upbringing and life's journey thus far, she reveals how she faced a series of challenges and setbacks, effectively hid childhood traumas, met extraordinary mentors, managed to grow her career and crossed the threshold into stardom and political advocacy, ultimately discovering her truest self and with it a deeper sense of belonging.

Throughout this profoundly moving and beautifully written memoir, Washington attempts to answer the questions so many have struggled with: Who am I? What is my truest and most authentic self? How do I find a deeper sense of connection and belonging? With grace and honesty, Washington inspires readers to search for - and find - themselves.

Like an apparition, conjured out of the darkness, a young man with light blond hair pushed his face into the car. I immediately spotted the knife. It was a long, thin weapon, almost like a letter opener, with a tapering blade. It felt cold and spiny as he pressed it to my neck. When he spoke his voice, which was quiet and controlled, sounded as though it emanated from a distant planet. But every word thudded into my skull. “Move over or I’ll kill you,” he whispered.

And so began Alison’s nightmare journey with the two callous killers who were to rape her, stab her so many times doctors could not count the wounds, slit her throat and leave her for dead in a filthy clearing miles from the city of Port Elizabeth which was her home. But Alison defied death. And more than that, she denied her attackers the satisfaction of destroying her life.

I Have Life is the triumphant story of a woman who refused to become a victim. The courage which allowed her to move beyond severe physical and emotional trauma and to turn a devastating experience into something life-affirming and strong, is an inspiration to people everywhere.

In this fascinating and entertaining memoir, the legendary White Bushman, Peter Stark, writes about his experiences in the former German South West Africa: first as a farm manager and lion hunter, and later as nature conservationist.

Stark's fearless personality and phenomenal knowledge of the veld, combined with an intimate knowledge of the San people and their culture make for stories and experiences that most people can only dream of. Whether it's about lions chasing San trackers, elephants trampling a campsite or the spearing of 32 scorpions with a kebab-skewer - Stark's stories are bound to awe and entertain.

With Peter Stark's unique and genial narrative voice, The White Bushman presents an important cultural-historical perspective on the country that became Namibia. The photographs, taken either by Stark himself or his fellow game wardens, contribute greatly to enhancing the images conjured up by these captivating adventures and anecdotes.

"Words have power. Yet that power must be rooted in truth and justice. Words must never stand apart from those principles."

Readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his beautifully surreal worlds will be fascinated by this highly personal look at the craft of writing.

In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author shares with readers what he thinks about being a novelist; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians.

What does friendship have to do with racial difference, settler colonialism and post-apartheid South Africa? While histories of apartheid and colonialism in South Africa have often focused on the ideologies of segregation and white supremacy, Ties that Bind explores how the intimacies of friendship create vital spaces for practices of power and resistance. Combining interviews, history, poetry, visual arts, memoir and academic essay, the collection keeps alive the promise of friendship and its possibilities while investigating how affective relations are essential to the social reproduction of power. From the intimacy of personal relationships to the organising ideology of liberal colonial governance, the contributors explore the intersection of race and friendship from a kaleidoscope of viewpoints and scales. Insisting on a timeline that originates in settler colonialism, Ties that Bind uncovers the implication of anti-Blackness within nonracialism, and powerfully challenges a simple reading of the Mandela moment and the rainbow nation. In the wake of countrywide student protests calling for decolonization of the university, and reignited debates around racial inequality, this timely volume insists that the history of South African politics has always already been about friendship. Written in an accessible and engaging style, Ties that Bind will interest a wide audience of scholars, students, and activists, as well as general readers curious about contemporary South African debates around race and intimacy.

The Penguin Classics Marvel Collection presents the origin stories, seminal tales, and characters of the Marvel Universe to explore Marvel's transformative and timeless influence on an entire genre of fantasy.

It is impossible to imagine American popular culture without Marvel Comics. For decades, Marvel has published groundbreaking visual narratives that sustain attention on multiple levels: as metaphors for the experience of difference and otherness; as meditations on the fluid nature of identity; and as high-water marks in the artistic tradition of American cartooning, to name a few.

This anthology contains twelve key stories from the first two years of Spider-Man's publication history (from 1962 to 1964). These influential adventures not only transformed the super hero fantasy into an allegory for the pain of adolescence but also brought a new ethical complexity to the genre-by insisting that with great power there must also come great responsibility.

A foreword by Jason Reynolds and scholarly introductions and apparatus by Ben Saunders offer further insight into the enduring significance of The Amazing Spider-Man and classic Marvel comics.

The Penguin Classics black spine paperback features full-colour art throughout.

In Gode van Papier poog die digter om gestalte te gee aan die moderne mens se gode: gode (ook buite die tradisionele sin van die woord) met voete van klei wat op hul plek gesit en gehou word.

Hoewel die woord "gode" dikwels in die bundel gebruik word, dui dit baie keer nie op gode in die tradisionele sin van die woord nie.

Allerlei dinge, tot die gedigte self, word gode in hierdie bundel.

Uncooperative animals, underperforming crops, and rather less than best-laid plans pursued with unbridled enthusiasm. Clarkson’s farm is the gift that keeps on giving.

But, as one overseas visitor* admitted, he only came to Diddly Squat because he just didn’t believe that Jeremy could be so incompetent.

Not one to be discouraged, however, our hero decides to bring his misunderstood entrepreneurial flair to bear on a new venture: a pub. And just a few short weeks later, the doors open on The Farmer’s Dog.

All British produce, Hawkstone beer on tap, a private bar for farmers and a vintage tractor hanging from the ceiling. The perfect country pub. A welcome distraction from sustainable farming initiatives, psychedelic wheat, angry protests in central London and a headbutting goat.

What, you may be asking, could possibly go wrong?

On top of the lavatories packing up and the electricity running out, you mean? As the Cotwolds’ newest publican quickly discovers, there’s a lot more to landlording than pulling pints.

Just as well, then, that he still has Lisa, Kaleb, Cheerful Charlie and Gerald to help him through. Especially now his doctor’s told him he’s got to become a vegetablist …

*along with the whole of the rest of China, apparently

"South Africa's most notorious female serial killer since Daisy de Melker".

In 2021, South Africa was introduced to notorious serial killer, Rosemary Ndlovu. Rosemary worked as a police sergeant in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni. Despite taking an oath to serve and protect, in court it emerged that she had arranged the murders of her lover and at least five members of her family. For some murders she hired hitmen, others she carried out herself.

Regarded as our nation's most significant female serial killer since Daisy de Melker, Rosemary killed for money.

The Penguin Classics Marvel Collection presents the origin stories, seminal tales, and characters of the Marvel Universe to explore Marvel's transformative and timeless influence on an entire genre of fantasy.

It is impossible to imagine American popular culture without Marvel Comics. For decades, Marvel has published groundbreaking visual narratives that sustain attention on multiple levels: as metaphors for the experience of difference and otherness; as meditations on the fluid nature of identity; and as high-water marks in the artistic tradition of American cartooning, to name a few.

Drawing upon multiple comic book series, this collection includes Captain America's very first appearances from 1941 alongside key examples of his first solo stories of the 1960s, in which Steve Rogers, the newly resurrected hero of World War II, searches to find his place in a new and unfamiliar world. As the contents reveal, the transformations of this American icon thus mark parallel transformations in the nation itself.

A foreword by Gene Luen Yang and scholarly introductions and apparatus by Ben Saunders offer further insight into the enduring significance of Captain America and classic Marvel comics.

The Penguin Classics black spine paperback features full-colour art throughout.

Connect: Writing For Online Audiences is a timeous guide for South Africans working in the digital space. It encapsulates the current digital landscape in South Africa, with its constraints and opportunities for reaching audiences via social media platforms, websites, blogs, apps and email. And it is designed to help students as well as industry decision-makers connect with audiences, whether as social media managers, search engine writers, digital analysts, copywriters, content marketing strategists or digital public relations executives.

Primarily, these are all online storytellers and this book aims to assist them in achieving their goals.

The book draws on reputable brands for best-practice examples. It uses South African examples of online campaigns alongside international names to provide a relevant yet globally situated experience for the South African reader. The contributing authors are all well-respected experts in their fields who share their invaluable experience in this book. Connect: Writing for Online Audiences is a must-have on the bookshelf (digital or physical) of every individual reaching out to an online readership.

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.

After matriculating from a top Jewish school, Nikki Munitz finds herself in the clutches of a heroin addiction. She's sent to a remote rehab, run by a pastor who brandishes a tattoo of Satan. There she meets the handsome son of a wealthy Afrikaans family. Lured by the illusion of her ‘happy-ever-after’ she marries him. But the facade soon crumbles.

Money is in short supply. Nikki takes on a job at a reputable law firm. Encrypted passwords are entrusted to her. She begins to siphon small, undetectable amounts from trust funds of loyal clients. The amounts increase. Caught red-handed, she's fired. By the time the law catches up with her, Nikki is clean and sober. On the advice of her lawyer who reassures her she will never go to jail, she pleads guilty to all 37 counts of fraud. After a gruelling 2-year court battle, she's found guilty.

Fraud is a powerful memoir about a young woman who is forced to face her life of deceit in a prison cell where she ultimately finds her freedom to fly.

Dear Waheed: A mother’s legacy of love and wisdom in thirty unforgettable letters is a poignant collection of letters written by a mother to her son over the course of thirty days against the backdrop of Ramadaan during the pandemic lockdown.

The author found herself vulnerable and alone; her son in one city, and she in another. During her solitude, she embraced the opportunity to delve deep into her spirit and found that, as she wrote, a new pathway to healing appeared. The period was a pivotal experience for Farhana Yunnus, as it was for many. A transformative journey to reflect, heal, and restore. She discovered that her letters were bridging the gap between hearts and cities, silence and uncertainty, and the past and present.

Through her poetic and reflective prose, Yunnus navigates the trials of emotional and spiritual growth during a time when connection and comfort were hard to find. She compassionately explores themes such as faith, mental health, resilience, individuality, family, love, and the powerful bond between a mother and child.

A hybrid narrative, blending memoir with social commentary and political analysis.

Always in search of "home", the book tracks Ismail Lagardien's vast experiences of a deeply lived life, always against a backdrop of "unbelonging" - first as a reporter in the turbulent 80s, to studying economics at the LSE, then achieving a doctorate at the University of Wales, to working as a speechwriter at the World Bank in Washington.

A unique and brilliant read.

In the world of espionage, truth is the first victim and nothing is as it seems. Here, for the first time, South Africa’s most notorious apartheid spy, Olivia Forsyth, lays bare the story of her remarkable life. With remarkable courage and brutal honesty she attempts to set the record straight.

Olivia Forsyth was a romantic young woman in search of adventure when she joined the Security Police with visions of international derring-do. But Craig Williamson, her unit head, had other ideas. Olivia was trained to spy on students before being dispatched to Rhodes University, a supposed ‘hotbed’ of anti-apartheid radicalism. It wasn’t long before Olivia had infiltrated various student organisations, feeding vital information back to her handler.

She came to hold prominent positions on campus and, as reward, was promoted to Lieutenant. Having reached the end of her studies, Olivia set her sights on a much more ambitious – and dangerous – target: the ANC in exile. But what should have been her greatest triumph as a spy turned into disaster when the ANC threw her into Quatro, the notorious internment camp in Angola. This is a riveting story set in the final years of apartheid.

A clear-eyed account of learning how to lead in a chaotic world, by General Jim Mattis—the former Secretary of Defense and one of the most formidable strategic thinkers of our time—and Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense and combat Marine.

Call Sign Chaos is the account of Jim Mattis’s storied career, from wide-ranging leadership roles in three wars to ultimately commanding a quarter of a million troops across the Middle East. Along the way, Mattis recounts his foundational experiences as a leader, extracting the lessons he has learned about the nature of warfighting and peacemaking, the importance of allies, and the strategic dilemmas—and short-sighted thinking—now facing our nation. He makes it clear why America must return to a strategic footing so as not to continue winning battles but fighting inconclusive wars.

Mattis divides his book into three parts: Direct Leadership, Executive Leadership, and Strategic Leadership. In the first part, Mattis recalls his early experiences leading Marines into battle, when he knew his troops as well as his own brothers. In the second part, he explores what it means to command thousands of troops and how to adapt your leadership style to ensure your intent is understood by your most junior troops so that they can own their mission. In the third part, Mattis describes the challenges and techniques of leadership at the strategic level, where military leaders reconcile war’s grim realities with political leaders’ human aspirations, where complexity reigns and the consequences of imprudence are severe, even catastrophic.

Call Sign Chaos is a memoir of a life of warfighting and lifelong learning, following along as Mattis rises from Marine recruit to four-star general. It is a journey about learning to lead and a story about how he, through constant study and action, developed a unique leadership philosophy, one relevant to us all.

Whetsho-otsile Joseph (Joe) Seremane is the founding federal chair of the Democratic Alliance in South Africa. Joe’s story spans six decades and tells of a visionary who survived incarceration at Robben Island, exile to Bophuthatswana and further incarceration at Fort Glamorgan.

Joe starts out as a champion of the banned People’s Africanist Congress but gradually develops a more holistic viewpoint. He concludes that he can contribute to the new democracy by helping to swell the ranks of the opposition. Eventually, in 2002, Joe finds his way to the Democratic Alliance as their founding federal chair. Hurt and disappointment come his way as he is seen as a traitor and a coconut by erstwhile comrades and co-prisoners.

As democracy in his beloved homeland starts to shed its skin of idealism and hope, he has to grapple with grave personal loss and a compelling question: Who is the enemy really?

In his foreword Tony Leon, erstwhile leader of the DA, notes: "I commend Fly the Tattered Dream Coat, both for its deep dive into this country’s history-in-the-making and the human story it describes of one of the more significant but underappreciated fighters for South Africa’s freedom."

In this engaging and authentic record of Joe’s storied careers and background, Dr Maske recounts Joe’s presence in my life at both its happiest and saddest…

Aan die einde van 1896, enkele jare voor die Anglo-Boereoorlog, het die 26-jarige wewenaar en Transvaalse koerantman Eugène Marais na Londen vertrek om in die regte te gaan studeer. Hier het hy oënskynlik tot in die doodsnikke van die oorlog gewoon.

Oor hierdie lewensjare van een van Afrikaans se beroemdste letterkundige figure is baie min bekend. Leon Rousseau sê in sy baanbreker-lewensverhaal oor Marais, Die Groot Verlange (1974): “Tensy ontdekkings gemaak word wat ’n mens jou op die oomblik kwalik kan voorstel, sal dit altyd onmoontlik bly om ’n samehangende relaas van Marais se vyf jaar in Europa te gee.”

Hierdie ontdekkings en nog baie meer is nou gemaak. In Donker Stroom word onthul presies waarmee Marais hom kort voor, tydens en ná die bitter stryd tussen Boer en Brit besig gehou het, ’n verstommende verhaal wat ’n mens jou skaars kan indink. Was Marais die onkreukbare patriot en joernalis wat sy biograwe van hom gemaak het, of is hierdie Afrikaner-ikoon ook deur die donker stroom van die tydsgees meegesleur?

"I was 19 years old when I came face to face with Nelson Mandela. He was 60. Until that day I had never heard of him, or his African National Congress. I was his prison warder on Robben Island and he changed my life forever." - Christo Brand

The two of them – one a young white warder, the other serving a life sentence - should have become bitter enemies. Instead they formed an extraordinary friendship through small acts of human kindness. Christo, a gentle young man who valued ordinary decency and courtesy, struck a chord with the wise and resilient freedom fighter.

This bond of trust endured between the two men long after Mandela was freed.

In this book Christo tells, for the first time, the incredible and moving story of their unlikely friendship. He provides rare and personal insights into Mandela’s life during his years on Robben Island.

Liza Minnelli is one of the most iconic and enduring figures in entertainment history. Now, in her first and only memoir, Liza tells her story in her own words - and what a story it is.

Born into Hollywood royalty, Liza was the daughter of legendary director Vincente Minnelli and the incomparable Judy Garland - and yet her beloved 'Mama's' brilliance was matched by searing personal battles, making her mother both an inspiration and, at times, a source of fear. In this deeply candid memoir, Liza pulls back the curtain on her extraordinary life, from her meteoric rise to Broadway and Hollywood stardom to the whirlwind of high-profile marriages and relationships, as well as the private heartbreaks of multiple miscarriages and lifelong struggle with Substance Use Disorder. As told her her most beloved confidant, music icon Michael Feinstein, Liza relives the liberated nights at Studio 54, the activism and friendships that shaped her - including the likes of Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Halston, Mary J. Blige, Michael Jackson and Princess Diana - and the fearless way she defied conventions, embracing sexual fluidity and battling bigotry at a time of limited public understanding.

But above all, as she turns 80 years old, Liza is reclaiming her truth, dispelling tabloid myths and setting the record straight with stories she's never shared before. Raw, strong, sexy, hilarious and unapologetically honest, this is a defiant celebration of self-belief, survival and humanity - proving once and for all why Liza remains one of the most captivating performers the world has ever known.

"If this were a book quiz and you were to ask me what film is most like Absolutely Jani I would answer unhesitatingly, Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen's Oscar-nominated film."

Those who remember the "Just Jani" column in the Sunday Times will be intrigued and delighted. Those who missed out on those heady times will be captivated by this universal story of betrayal, back-stabbing and life in the very fast lane. It is acerbic, witty, wry, bittersweet and exquisitely penned. She describes how she became a columnist, and reveals much of life behind the scenes at the Sunday Times.

Jani also shares details of the crucial interview with Eugene Terre'blanche, details that will shake the preconceptions and ruffle more than a few feathers. Jani's reputation is reduced to tatters when she takes on UK's Channel4 in a law suit that reverberated around the world and kept the public baying for blood. But in all this we are able to see the real Jani Allan behind the fabulous brittle creature that the tabloids tore to shreds and devoured and then spat out.

That the real Jani Allan, gutsy, bright beyond the telling, vulnerable and a story-teller beyond compare has chosen to share her story is a remarkable gift to the reader. It is a story that will command a great deal of respect.