Juliet Prowse was a young South African dancer who burst into the international spotlight in her first Hollywood movie. Considered talented and exotic, she caught the media’s attention and her engagement to Frank Sinatra fuelled their fascination further. But was it true love and what did Sinatra make of Juliet’s relationship with Elvis during G.I. Blues?

Unhappy with 20th Century Fox, Juliet broke out of her contract, created her own company and became one of the highest paid dancers of her era. While Juliet won awards for Sweet Charity in Las Vegas and London, opening on Broadway seemed to be elusive. Juliet continued to build her world-class modern dance company, winning Female Entertainer of the Year in Las Vegas three times with competition from Liza Minnelli, Barbra Streisand and Shirley MacLaine. By the mid-1970s, she was on a $1 million contract as a Desert Inn Million Dollar Baby. Considered a triple threat, Juliet featured on the international stage for over four decades.

This story is personal. Told by Juliet’s niece, it includes Juliet’s words from letters written to her mother, family anecdotes and amusing insights from those who worked with Juliet. With her endless legs and playful charm, Juliet had many romances and married actor John McCook of The Bold and the Beautiful. But in her search for love and professional fulfilment, could she accomplish it all?

Imbokodo: Women Who Shape Us is a groundbreaking series of books which introduces you to the powerful stories of South African women who have all made their mark and cleared a path for women and girls. These books recognise, acknowledge and honour our heroines and elders from the past and the present. South African women are silent no more on the roles that we have played in advancing our lives as artists, storytellers, writers, politicians and educationists. The title 'Imbokodo' was been chosen as it is a Zulu word that means "rock" and is often used in the saying 'Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo!', which means "You Strike a Women, You Strike a Rock!" These books were made possible with the support of Biblionef and funding from the National Arts Council. In 10 Curious Inventors, Healers & Creators you will read about the women who shape our world through education, science and maths. You will read about women who became teachers, nurses, social workers, scientists and community workers, overcame obstacles and through their work fought for social change.

Dié boek is rock ’n roll in die binnewêreld van die legendariese liedjieboer, Anton Goosen. Hanlie Retief vertel Goosen se buitengewone lewensverhaal – van sy grootwordjare in die Vrystaat, die Musiek-en-Liriek-era, sensuur, hoogtepunte en teleurstellings . . . tot waar die vader van Afrikaanse Rock 'n terugblik gee op sy merkwaardige lewe.

Kojo Baffoe embodies what it is to be a contemporary African man. Of Ghanaian and German heritage, he was raised in Lesotho and moved to South Africa at the age of 27. Forever curious, Kojo has the enviable ability to simultaneously experience moments intimately and engage people (and their views) sincerely, while remaining detached enough to think through his experiences critically. He has earned a reputation as a thinker, someone who lives outside the box and free of the labels that society seeks to place on us.

Listen to Your Footsteps is an honest and, at times, raw collection of essays from a son, a father, a husband, a brother and a man deeply committed to doing the internal work. Kojo reflects on losing his mother as a toddler, being raised by his father, forming an identity, living as an immigrant, his tussles with substance abuse, as well as his experiences of fatherhood, marriage and making a career in a fickle industry. He gives an extended glimpse into the experiences that make boys become men, and the battles that make men discover what they are made of, all the while questioning what it means to be ‘a man’.

This biography of Michael Mosoeu Moerane (1904-1980) surveys the unique life, times and music of the first classically educated African composer in southern Africa.

The Times Do Not Permit is the first extended overview of the life, times, and music of Michael Mosoeu Moerane (1904-1980), a composer brought up in rural South Africa in the early twentieth century. It offers a close study of African choral music that dates back to mission schools and colleges in the Eastern Cape, where a number of future African composers, as well as future political leaders, were educated. Moerane was one of many mission-trained musicians who wrote short a cappella choral works for churches and schools.

The Times Do Not Permit explores the political changes and social conditions that made life for Moerane both possible and impossible as a composer. He was the first black South African to qualify with a BMus degree in 1941. However, this caused difficulties for him both within the African choral circuit, where his advanced modernist style was considered strange and difficult, and within white concert life, from which he was largely excluded. Only his symphonic poem for orchestra, Fatšo La Heso, attained some recognition locally and internationally during his lifetime, and the score survived, unlike many of the piano pieces and smaller instrumental works he wrote.

In addition to telling the story of his ancestry, upbringing, education and teaching career, Christina Lucia offers an analysis of his music, the famous symphonic poem and four of his choral pieces, to reflect the major themes he expressed. The Times Do Not Permit is supplemented with interviews with those who knew Moerane, and ends with a coda of professional letters to, from and about him that gives his voice a presence in the absence of much personal documentation.

Siya ‘Slikour’ Metane is a musician and entrepreneur best known as one of the founding members of the record-breaking hip-hop group Skwatta Kamp. Told with signature humour, this memoir gives readers an all-access pass to the moments and the music that made the man, detailing the courage it took to overcome his self-doubt and to mould himself into a media maverick.

From small beginnings in the East Rand to gaining mainstream recognition and going solo, celebrity dating and breaking up the band, hitting rock bottom and rising up to make it as a digital media pioneer, Slikour takes us through the highs and lows of his journey to becoming a force to be reckoned with. He unpacks the energy that connected the dots that propelled the success of everyone he came into contact with.

Featuring never-known-before experiences with big names including Zola, Bonang Matheba and Kwesta as well as brands like KFC, Coca-Cola, Butan and Kaizer Chiefs, this is a candid look at what it takes to make it in the South African music and digital media scenes and what connection can achieve.

Imbokodo: Women Who Shape Us is a groundbreaking series of books which introduces you to the powerful stories of South African women who have all made their mark and cleared a path for women and girls. These books recognise, acknowledge and honour our heroines and elders from the past and the present. South African women are silent no more on the roles that we have played in advancing our lives as artists, storytellers, writers, politicians and educationists. The title 'Imbokodo' was been chosen as it is a Zulu word that means "rock" and is often used in the saying 'Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo!', which means "You Strike a Women, You Strike a Rock!" These books were made possible with the support of Biblionef and funding from the National Arts Council. In 10 Curious Inventors, Healers & Creators you will read about the women who shape our world through education, science and maths. You will read about women who became teachers, nurses, social workers, scientists and community workers, overcame obstacles and through their work fought for social change.

Francois, Hunter, Wynand, Jaco en Johnny is die vyf lede van Fokofpolisiekar. Sedert hul eerste optrede in 2003 het dié band dikwels die koerante gehaal: Musiekjoernaliste was opgewonde oor hulle klank, maar hul omstrede uitlatings het dikwels groter opslae gemaak. Maar wie skuil agter die uitdagende naam?

Sommige lesers sal verbaas wees om te hoor dat die meeste van die lede in 'n charismatiese kerk bevriend geraak het, dat hulle 'n bemarkingsveldtog uitgedink het nog voordat hulle enige liedjies geskryf het en dat hulle eens op 'n tyd skaars sjampoe kon bekostig. In Biografie van 'n Bende kan nuuskieriges lees van Fokofpolisiekar se lewe in die huis wat hulle 'The Barracks of Rebellion' gedoop het, asook van die ander suksesvolle splintergroepe wat ontstaan het uit dié kerngroep.

In hierdie biografie word vertel hoe dié uiteenlopende individue boesemvriende geword het en die eerste suksesvolle Afrikaanse punkrockgroep gestig het deur bloed, sweet en 'n paar goeie sakebesluite. Dié boek is Fokofpolisiekar se eerste goedgekeurde biografie.

Sulke Vriende Is Skaars bevat die geannoteerde briefkorrespondensie tussen twee seminale figure in die Suid-Afrikaanse Westerse kunsmusiek. Dit is die eerste keer dat briefwisseling binne die Suid-Afrikaanse musiekgeskiedenisskrywing gepubliseer word en is ’n publikasie wat ’n noemenswaardige bydra tot die dissipline van Suid-Afrikaanse musiekhistoriografie, asook tot Afrikaner- en apartheidshistoriografie, sal maak.

Dit toon die belangrikheid aan van verdere navorsing oor die geïnstitusionaliseerde posisie van wit kunsmusiek in Suid-Afrika. Benewens die briewe, word belangrike foto’s, afskrifte van faksimilees, telegramme en ander vorme van korrespondensie geplaas en groot klem geplaas op die visuele voorkoms van die boek.

It all began with Charlie Chaplin, flickering in black and white on a makeshift screen in their modest home in Springfield, which later led to the neighbourhood children happily handing over their coins to 10-year-old Anant Singh and his younger brother Sanjeev. At age 13, deeply affected by the passing of his father, Anant found solace and escape in the moving image to which his father had introduced him.

The combination of a deep and abiding passion for film and an entrepreneurial spirit were the sparks that lit the flame for Anant as he rewound 16mm reels in a film rental store in Durban, first for R1 a day and then for R25 a week. In South Africa in the 1970s, there were not many career options for a Black person who dreamed big in any business, let alone the film industry. But before his twentieth birthday, Anant was the owner of that store and in a business in which no person of colour had ventured. Restrictive legislation was not the only problem; all public facilities, including cinemas, were segregated and any voice raised in opposition to the state was swiftly silenced, while censorship across all forms of media, including films, was strictly enforced.

By hiring out films classified for whites only to all races and uncensored movies to anyone who wanted to watch them, Anant was arrested for breaking the laws he refused to recognise as legitimate. He moved on to wider distribution, first to cinemas across Africa and then to the international market, to setting up Videovision Enterprises and capturing the home video market, and finally to putting his heart and soul into producing award-winning and important films.

This extraordinary memoir is a story of professional relationships – and of friendships – with mentors including Ahmed Kathrada, Fatima and Ismail Meer and Nelson Mandela, as well as with superstars such as Quincy Jones, Sidney Poitier, Whoopi Goldberg, Amitabh Bachchan, Denzel Washington and Idris Elba. And it is a testament to determination, courage and perseverance – to speak up and speak out through the powerful medium of film.

Imbokodo: Women Who Shape Us is a groundbreaking series of books which introduces you to the powerful stories of South African women who have all made their mark and cleared a path for women and girls. These books recognise, acknowledge and honour our heroines and elders from the past and the present. South African women are silent no more on the roles that we have played in advancing our lives as artists, storytellers, writers, politicians and educationists. The title 'Imbokodo' was been chosen as it is a Zulu word that means "rock" and is often used in the saying 'Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo!', which means "You Strike a Women, You Strike a Rock!" These books were made possible with the support of Biblionef and funding from the National Arts Council. In 10 Curious Inventors, Healers & Creators you will read about the women who shape our world through education, science and maths. You will read about women who became teachers, nurses, social workers, scientists and community workers, overcame obstacles and through their work fought for social change.

Hugh Masekela is a prodigiously talented giant of jazz and world music, and a pioneer in sharing the voice and spirit of South Africa with the rest of the world, but his globetrotting tale transcends music.

Still Grazing was first published in the US in 2004; it is an autobiography which shares rich detail of world-acclaimed jazz giant Hugh Masekela's life, infused with love and loss, sex and drugs, exile and revolution.

He survived it all, with wit, passion, abundant talent and wisdom, and is now bringing his story back home!

South African icon Pieter-Dirk Uys has been on stage over 7 000 times. In this funny and tender memoir, Uys reveals the person behind the persona.

We meet his forbidding, musically driven Afrikaner father, his brilliant but troubled mother, and Sannie Abader, his Cape Flats ma who raised him in Pinelands, Cape Town.

Filled with photographs from the family album and 40 years of satire, The Echo Of A Noise also features Pieter’s Paarlse ouma, his strudel-baking German Oma, his devotion to Sophia Loren, the invention of Evita Bezuidenhout, and the joys and sorrows of a remarkable life.

Imbokodo: Women Who Shape Us is a groundbreaking series of books which introduces you to the powerful stories of South African women who have all made their mark and cleared a path for women and girls. These books recognise, acknowledge and honour our heroines and elders from the past and the present. South African women are silent no more on the roles that we have played in advancing our lives as artists, storytellers, writers, politicians and educationists. The title 'Imbokodo' was been chosen as it is a Zulu word that means "rock" and is often used in the saying 'Wathint' Abafazi, Wathint' Imbokodo!', which means "You Strike a Women, You Strike a Rock!" These books were made possible with the support of Biblionef and funding from the National Arts Council. In 10 Curious Inventors, Healers & Creators you will read about the women who shape our world through education, science and maths. You will read about women who became teachers, nurses, social workers, scientists and community workers, overcame obstacles and through their work fought for social change.

Melinda Ferguson is a well-known, award-winning True Love magazine journo and bestselling author of Smacked: a harrowing journey of addiction and Hooked. Both of Ferguson’s highly acclaimed books have been about her own journey. In her latest offering however, Melinda takes on the role of an active observer to bring us The Kelly Khumalo Story, told with the same no-holds-barred writing that she has become renowned for.

Kelly Khumalo is an award-winning kwaito star who rose to national fame at the age of 21: the shining star who after a string of bad decisions and relationships soon lost her shine. The book tracks the life and times of the fallen township pop princess, her plummet from grace, disastrous relationships with men, her addiction to cocaine, and finally her hard-fought battle back to sanity and her real love, music. Seen through Melinda’s sharp and always original eye, The Kelly Khumalo Story promises to be a page turner from start to finish. Now reunited with Kelly, manager Sarah Setlaelo, in her contributions to the book, offers a rare glimpse into the backstage of the South African music industry, rife with sensation and backstabbing. It is a tale of highs, lows and personal triumph. Ultimately the real question is: can Kelly come back from the edge?

Melinda formed a special bond with Kelly Khumalo in 2011 when she took the fallen-from-grace, young and drug-ravaged star to her first Narcotics Anonymous meeting. A mentoring relationship and friendship developed, giving Ferguson intimate and brutally real access to Kelly Khumalo’s life and journey of rebuilding and redemption.

“Initially I was totally disinterested in Kelly Khumalo, assuming she was just another empty headed member of The Young and Wasted Bling Generation, but once I peeled away the layers I saw the raw and undeniable talent of a young woman whose story promises to become one of the most inspirational of our times.” – Melinda Ferguson

“The talent that God gave me is bigger than the scandals, the drugs and the mistakes I made with men.” – Kelly Khumalo

This book traces the history of the Soul Brothers, a popular South African mbaqanga group that was formed in 1975. In this book the reader is invited to a 43 year journey of the Soul Brothers in music covering their successes and tribulation and their contribution to revolutionizing Mbaqanga music.

The book provides details about how the group was formed: who the original members were and how they met. It further highlights some painful but encouraging moments of the tragic deaths of original members and how the group managed to forge courage and carry on recording albums and performing live on local and international stages. In the book the reader learns more about when the group began recording albums and the events that led to the composition of certain songs.

Furthermore, using colorful photos of their accolades, gold and platinum discs, newspaper and magazine articles, and the views of other mbaqanga musicians, the book shows why the Soul brothers are proclaimed the Kings of Mbaqanga. It also has a chapter that analyses their music focusing specifically on the social meanings of their music.

Shauwn 'Mamkhize' Mkhize is a larger than life personality who, like her father and brother before her, is loved and misunderstood in equal measure. Her combination of political and business acumen runs in her family, and so is her ability to garner the sometimes-grudging admiration of those who have followed her rise to fame and fortune in the democratic dispensation. In her memoir, Mamkhize: My World, My Rules, this remarkable businesswoman shares the details of her cloistered but privileged childhood, which was torn asunder by the assassination of her father and the subsequent quest by her brother to avenge his death. She tells the story of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from her unique vantage point, as a family member of a victim.

As a young accounting graduate freshly returned from an overseas experience, Shauwn lands what initially seems to be a dream job with the multinational corporation that had sponsored her training abroad. It soon dissipates into disappointment - work that receives insufficient pay and she bravely ventures into business. In this book, she dispels the urban legends about her wealth, family, marriage and subsequent divorce. She reflects on the much-publicized story of her reinvention as Mamkhize, the soccer boss, and shares the lessons that she has learned from the experiences that life has given her. A woman with incredible agency, Mamkhize allows the reader a glimpse into her family life and her formative years. She illuminates how they have shaped the woman that she is today.

Not one to reveal every single trick of her trades (after all, she is the business), Shauwn Mkhize manages to regale without spoiling her aura of mystique. While touching the reader with her love for her parents, siblings and children, this memoir displays the dexterity with which she navigates modern life while striving to maintain a sense of tradition that keeps her grounded.

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.

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.

More than just a story about the personal journey of one of South Africa's most beloved music icons, this extraordinary memoir of PJ Powers - or Thandeka, as she was affectionately renamed by Soweto crowds - is set against the turbulent backdrop of South Africa's recent political history. It features a gallery of political leaders and international celebrities, including the likes of Nelson Mandela, Graga Machel, Chris Hani, Joaquim Chissano, Queen Elizabeth II, Brenda Fassie, Sharon Stone and Robert De Niro.

On Republic Day 1982, a white rock and roll band called Hotline, wearing stonewashed jeans and sporting big hair, took an accidental sho't left into Soweto - a detour that forever changed the life of their lead singer, PJ Powers. Hotline was the first all-white rock and roll band to "cross over" into highly segregated apartheid South Africa, making international headlines in the process. The prolific Powers went on to accomplish extraordinary heights as a solo artist with countless gold and platinum discs.

Here I Am, written with Marianne Thamm, is an intimate and hilarious account of the life and times of one of this country's most recognisable and enduring performers. From the dizzying heights of international stardom to the dark depths of her struggle with alcohol, this is a must-read to explore the heady mix of politics and music of the time.

Larry Joe's upbringing reads like that of many others in South Africa, having been born into a poor family in the Northern Cape and growing up with an alcoholic father and an abused mother. He stole his first loaf of bread at age five, to feed his hungry sister, and his descent into a life of crime, drugs and gangsterism was all but guaranteed. The only light in an otherwise pitch-black world was music: when Larry was four years old, his father showed him a few chords on the guitar. He learnt the rest himself and loved to play for other people. But the grip of crime was iron-clad, and Larry eventually pushed the boundary too far.

Having pulled off a major heist in the town of Douglas, Larry fled to Cape Town, changed his name, and took to the streets. Here he lived for seven years, busking outside shops to earn honest money, and battling his addiction to drugs. Seven years on, still with a price on his head, Larry made a decision and returned to Douglas to face the music.

Enter Aron Turest-Swartz, founding member of South African music sensation 'Freshlyground'. On this fateful World Aids Day in 2008, he watched, intrigued, as Larry Joe wowed the crowds at a concert in Douglas while prison wardens waited in the wings. The two struck up a friendship, and eventually a collaboration, which saw them producing a music album in the grounds of the Douglas Correctional Facility. When Larry was released three years early, he walked out of jail and onto stage.

The Crazy Life of Larry Joe tells the moving story of one man's journey away from certain self-destruction in a world characterised by crime and drugs towards personal freedom and a very real chance of stardom as he realises his musical talents and potential through his own extraordinary efforts and the mentorship of others.

The celebrated Springbok rugby hero Joost van der Westhuizen and his wife, the singer Amor Vittone, were a glamorous couple who captured the imagination of many South Africans. Known as their country’s own ‘Posh and Becks’, they were blessed with success, fame, public adulation and an apparently happy marriage. Until a shock report appeared on the front page of a local Sunday newspaper about a sex video …

In this book, the well-known journalist, and a personal friend and confidante of the Van der Westhuizens, Gavin Prins, now recounts the story behind the story – one that has never been published before. Prins, who broke the sex-video scandal on the front page of Rapport, chronicles how a simple farm boy who had become a national rugby hero met the woman of his dreams and married her, only to fall from grace in the most publicly humiliating way possible. With his confession came a measure of redemption – until he was brought to his knees by a lifethreatening illness …

Hard-hitting, often shocking but ultimately uplifting, this is the true story behind the sensational headlines that have dogged South Africa’s most high profile couple.

Koos Meyer is ‘n legende. Op laerskool reeds was hy ‘n entrepreneur met die aardigste geldmaakplanne. As nie-studerende student op Stellenbosch het hy roem verwerf as poetsbakker en kansvatter. En as joernalis, prospekteerder, grootwildjagter, matroos, hotelbestuurder, wildbewaarder en toespraakmaker het hy hom onderskei deur sy ongewone manier van doen.

Hy het nooit nodig gehad om snaaks te wees nie; hy was dit net. Met verborge agter die plesierige masker ‘n diepte waarvan min weet. Hier is bekende en minder bekende Koos-stories – nostagiese plesier vir tydgenote van hom, en ‘n aansteeklike kennismaking vir jonger lesers.

Soos Ollie Viljoen sê: “Daar is net één Koos Meyer.”

This is a fascinating collection on the life and times of Brenda Fassie, which includes a Foreword by Hugh Masekela and contributions from people who knew Brenda in both professional and personal capacities. It is being published in the year of the tenth anniversary of her death and is intended as both a tribute and to give fresh insight into Africa's biggest pop star.

The collection includes reminiscences, criticism, elegies, essays and appreciation by friends, ex-lovers, critics, poets, academics and musicians, reflecting the endless and boundary-crossing legacy of Brenda Fassie.

Funny, crazy, poignant, insightful and tragic, I'm Not Your Weekend Special traces the highs and lows of Brenda Fassie's life, celebrating the significance of this South African icon.

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.