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.

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’.

Die band Fokofpolisiekar en die woord "kontroversie" gaan hand aan hand. Sedert hul eerste optrede in 2003 het hulle aanhangers gegroei – en hul teenstanders ook. Een ding is seker: Hierdie band kan nie geignoreer word nie. Annie Klopper, 'n deurwinterde musiekjoernalis, is bekend daarvoor dat sy die groep se doen en late oor die jare fyn dopgehou het en hulle selfs die onderwerp van haar meestersgraad in Afrikaans gemaak het. Biografie van 'n bende het hieruit gespruit. In die biografie maak die leser kennis met Francois, Hunter, Wynand, Jaco en Johnny – die vyf lede agter Fokofpolisiekar. Die boek onthul fassinerende inligting wat tot nog toe nie gepubliseer is nie, soos dat die lede grotendeels hul vriendskappe met mekaar in 'n charismatiese kerk gesmee het. Die leser kry insae in hoe hul persoonlike ervarings neerslag gevind het in hul lirieke. Die staaltjies van die vyf vriende wat saam die Suid-Afrikaanse musiekbedryf op sy kop gekeer het, sorg vir baie ligte oomblikke en groot vermaak. Die meeste van die foto's in die boek is tot op datum nog ongepubliseer en vorm saam met die noukeurige navorsing van Klopper ’n moetlees-boek vir elke Fokofpolisiekar-aanhanger, belangstellende of nuuskierige!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!

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.

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.

Ayanda is a South African actress, public figure and artivist best known for playing the title role in the SABC1 sitcom Nomzamo, since 2007. It is her however her current role as Phumemele on Isibaya that has cemented her presence in the acting industry. A role which saw her twice nominated for the Royalty Soapie Awards.

In this personal memoir, Ayanda tracks her journey back to self in a bid to return to her true self and to redefine her worth. Ayanda shares intimate details of her most profound experiences as a young girl in the township in a toxic relationship with a high flying gangster. As young woman falling pregnant out of wedlock and the ostracism she encountered. As a young black woman in a white male dominated corporate environment. As an artist who didn’t quite fit into mainstream popularity and her battle to maintain her authenticity in an industry that recognizes fake over real. As a loyal friend betrayed by someone she loved and trusted. As a mother overwhelmed by the expectations of being a supermom. As a young wife fighting not to lose herself in marriage. As well as finding God by going against the stereotypes that define God for us.

In this memoir Ayanda zooms into and challenges the social expectations, cultural conditioning and people perceptions that sets the narrative that dictates the “self worth” for girls and women. By unlearning and reflecting on the untrue narratives girls and women are told and taught about themselves and learning a different truth, girls and women can begin the ‘Unbecoming To Become’ journey of restoring their identity, reclaiming their power and redefining their self worth.

In Mr Entertainment, we hear the voices of the people who knew Taliep Petersen best: his family, friends and collaborators. Their stories bring to life the spaces he inhabited, vividly recounting scenes from his childhood, his rise to fame from the Cape Coon Carnival stage to the West End, his artistic collaborations, most notably with David Kramer, his family life, and his tragic death and its aftermath.

In this pioneering biography of one of Cape Town’s most beloved entertainers, we encounter Petersen as a complex and many-sided personality whose influence continues to reverberate in national life. Mr Entertainment evokes not just Taliep’s life, but also the music and entertainment worlds of the 1950s to 2000s and their diverse and irrepressible cultural traditions. Along the way, it brings us to the front row of South Africa’s difficult history.

Drawing on the musician’s personal archive and on more than fifty interviews conducted over a decade, Paula Fourie has pieced together a fascinating portrait of Taliep Petersen, acutely observed and poignantly captured.

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.

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.

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!

’n Bekroonde joernalis, Malvory Adams, skrik wakker in ’n hospitaalbed en wonder hoe hy daar beland het. Dit tref hom soos ’n tienpondhamer tussen die oë: Sy selfmoordpoging het misluk! ’n Bleddie “Samaritaan” het hom uit die kloue van die dood weggeruk.

Malvory se hartverskeurende lewensreis sleep jou enduit saam en laat jou by tye na jou asem snak.

Als is nie net swart en wit nie skets ’n prentjie van swaarkry, stryd, sukses, selfvernietiging, ’n dans met die dood en die lewe.

’n QR-kode word ook by Als is nie net swart en wit nie ingesluit van sy nuutste liedjie, “Hemel-Dal” asook ’n Engelse weergawe genaamd “Heaven’s Vale”.

Bheki Mseleku is widely considered one of the most accomplished jazz musicians to have emerged from South Africa. His music has a profound significance in recalling and giving emphasis to that aspect of the African American jazz tradition originating in the rhythms and melodies of Africa. The influences of Zulu traditional music, South African township, classical music and American jazz are clearly evident and combine to create an exquisite and particularly lyrical style, evoking a sense of purity and peace that embraces the spiritual healing quality central to his musical inspiration.

The Artistry of Bheki Mseleku is an in-depth study of his musical style and includes annotated transcriptions and analysis of a selection of compositions and improvisations from his most acclaimed albums including ‘Celebration’, ‘Timelessness’, ‘Star Seeding’, ‘Beauty of Sunrise’ and ‘Home at Last’. Mseleku recorded with several American jazz greats including Ravi Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins and Abbey Lincoln. His music serves as a vital link to the African–American musical art form that inspired many of the South African jazz legends.

What a discovery! In 2014, several years after he moved to Australia, John Coetzee sold his house in Cape Town, unaware that he was leaving behind unique documents from his teenage years. In the attic of his former home, the new owners discovered a forgotten brown suitcase and a large cardboard box, containing a complete photographic archive of old prints and negatives from Coetzee?s childhood never seen before.

The photographs in this photobook (taken with what John Coetzee refers to as his ?spy camera?) date back to John?s first two years of high school when the Coetzee family moved from Worcester to Cape Town. The images provide insight into his childhood through his own lens. He shows us his world and the things that interested him most: friends and teachers at school, cricket matches, the surroundings of Cape Town, the family Karoo farm and his home life. His mother Vera, especially, was a favourite subject.

The photographs are fascinating due to their imperfections, and because they show young Coetzee?s interest in documenting time and movement in order to capture life itself. At first glance, the photographs appear to depict scenes from everyday rural life in the 1950s, but their playfulness, straightforwardness, and self-awareness ensure that the photos are not merely nostalgic. Every now and then we catch a glimpse of the social reality of Cape Town during the apartheid years.

And for the readers of Boyhood the photographs are an intriguing visual chronicle of Coetzee?s life. Although many know him as a serious and philosophical writer, here we also see his playful, boyish side and the search for his own identity. Through Coetzee?s lens we see the fleeting moments from a past which is now captured in the emulsions of his negatives.

The book also has an exclusive interview with John Coetzee about his boyhood and photo experiments.

Tumi Morake modelled her public persona on her mother, a charming and contentious woman who used her big, bold voice to say what others were afraid to utter. It’s the personality that Tumi took on stage in the mostly male space of stand-up comedy, and the one that gave her the courage to join a white, Afrikaans radio station and comment about apartheid on air.

But there’s only so much you can find out about Tumi from the stage, the screen and the internet. And Then Mama Said… is the voice of Tumi in private, as well as a behind-the-scenes perspective of a pioneering South African star who has been both deeply loved and viciously hated by her audiences.

Tumi gets frank about the race row at Jacaranda FM; the Jaguar car accident that cyber bullies said she deserved; the body-shaming she endured on the set of Our Perfect Wedding; and her tumultuous relationship with her beloved husband. Throughout her story, she carries the voice of her mother, and with it the indispensable life lessons that made her who she is today.

‘I wanted to be who I felt I was. Broken. A wreck. A nobody.’

There’s a moment where life happens. It’s the moment just before making a good deci-sion, or a bad one. For Milton Schorr, just such a moment took place at the age of seven-teen, when he found himself squatting on his haunches in a Cape Town flat with a heroin
needle in his arm.

A friend sat with him, his thumb on the plunger, and a decision was to be made. Let the heroin slip inside, and take the road the drug offered, or turn away, and find a new life not defined by the endless quest for oblivion.

For Schorr, the path was already set, as it had been at his first taste of shoplifting, porn, cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, Mandrax, LSD, Ecstasy and sex. No decision is separate from any other, each one is a continuation of all that have gone before, and it is only by a
monumental reckoning with the self that the course can be altered.

This book is the story of Milton Schorr’s life as a drug addict, both in active addiction and recovery. Today, two decades sober, he relates the pivotal points in his own journey toward death, and back to life.