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.

Die gevierde Springbok-rugbyheld Joost van der Westhuizen en sy vrou, die sangeres Amor Vittone, was ’n glansryke paartjie wat die verbeelding van menige Suid-Afrikaner aangegryp het. Hulle het as hul land se eie “Posh en Becks” bekend gestaan en was geseënd met sukses, roem, ophemeling deur die publiek, en ’n oënskynlik gelukkige huwelik. Totdat ’n skokberig oor ’n seksvideo op die voorblad van ’n plaaslike Sondagkoerant verskyn het …

In hierdie boek vertel Gavin Prins, die welbekende joernalis en ’n persoonlike vriend en vertroueling van die Van der Westhuizens, nou die storie agter die storie – die een wat nog nooit tevore gepubliseer is nie. Prins, wat die seksvideo-skandaal op die voorblad van Rapport bekend gemaak het, beskryf hoe ’n eenvoudige plaasseun wat ’n nasionale rugbyheld geword het, sy droomvrou ontmoet en met haar getrou het – en toe op die mees openbare en vernederende manier in ongenade geval het. Sy bekentenis het ’n sekere mate van bevryding meegebring – totdat ’n lewensgevaarlike siekte hom op sy knieë gedwing het …

Hierdie kragtige vertelling, wat dikwels skokkend maar uiteindelik opheffend is, is die ware verhaal agter die opspraakwekkende opskrifte wat Suid-Afrika se bekendste paartjie geteister het.

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.

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

People love talking about Loui Fish. She has been called many things: social butterfly, party animal, sex kitten, flirt, and cougar. But to that list one can also add: gorgeous, successful, and witty. She is not to be underestimated – she is most definitely her own person, with a zest for life. Not many people can claim to have rubbed shoulders with Victoria and David Beckham or boast Jimmy Choo as a personal friend or George Michael as a former neighbour.

In her revealing autobiography, Walking in My Choos, she recounts how, as a child, she had always wanted to marry a rock star. Early in her adult life there was a brief dalliance with Steve Hofmeyr. James Small took her out of the Boland, but in return she was introduced to his temper and his fists. Eventually she married the love of her life, Mark Fish, and became part of a social group known as Footballers’ Wives – women to whom the labels on their underwear are as important as the cars they drive.

This is a tale of passion, violence and love. Of haute couture and life in the fast lane. But it is also the story of a vulnerable woman who ultimately realises that money only gets you so far, and that all the glory and admiration can’t guarantee happiness. Does it really matter what everyone else says?

“Why am I writing my story? I am not a victim. I am not a bad person. I am just a girl who fell in love with a young man. Who might still be in love with him. But I’m not 24 anymore. I was married for almost 11 years. And why are we not married anymore? Well, as my icon once remarked in an interview with Martin Bashir: ‘It was getting a little crowded.’ Like me, she was referring to her marriage. She was known as Princess Diana.”

Daar is min gesigte op Suid-Afrikaanse televisie so wyd herken en geliefd soos die van Johan Stemmet, en min kenwysies so sinoniem met naweekaand-vermaak as die vrolike Noot vir Noot-klingel. Dat Johan Stemmet al vir meer as dertig jaar ononderbroke by televisie betrokke is, voor en agter die skerms, mag dalk sommige verras (hy lyk dan nie 'n dag ouer as dertig nie?) - maar nog interessanter is die doodgewone aardsheid en opregte menswees wat die toonaard bepaal vir die gebore Weskusklong se lewenslied. Woord vir Woord is 'n reis deur Johan se lewe: 'n kleurvolle concerto met 'n goeie sarsie dawerende akkoorde (geweet dat Johan as student vir Paul Getty II partytjiemusiek verskaf het? Of die een was wat gesorg het vir Tolla van der Merwe se eerste televisieverskyning?) en onverwagse vingerlopies (hy't Afrikaans gegee by Rondebosch Boys High - en dink self sy onderbaadjies op televisie lyk verspot!). Of jy nou 'n getroue aanhanger is, of eerder grappenderwys dink 'Kyk hoe kyk hy vir my!' - Woord vir Woord is meer as bloot die vertel van 'n fassinerende lewe. Dis ook die verhaal van die ontvouing van die Suid-Afrikaanse televisiebedryf en 'n sout-van-die-aarde-storie wat nie anders kan as om wyd te resoneer en te boei nie!

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.”

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.

First published in Afrikaans as "Als Is Nie Net Swart En Wit Nie, this expanded memoir probes some of the most pivotal issues facing South Africa today: race, ‘othering’, unremembering, identity, gangsterism, addiction, and the process of making meaning of a society that has become unhinged from its moorings.

Malvory Adams is an author and veteran journalist who served as an editorial executive at mainstream newspapers such as City Press, Sowetan, Die Burger, Beeld and Son. At present, he plies his trade as a News Bulletin Writer at Afrikaanse TV-Nuus on SABC2. Away from the newsroom, he is the singer-songwriter MeZZo.

He walks with the reader through a lion-hearted personal lens and through the purgatory of his travelogue, which starts 15 years before his birth in the tiny Eastern Cape hamlet of Breidbach. He dramatically recounts how his German grandfather robbed him of his grandparents. Premised on that epoch-making deed, he takes the reader on a painful journey of uprooting, an agonising coming of age, and the intricacies of navigating cultural belongings and a bloodline concoction. Next, he plummets horrifyingly into a netherworld of alcoholism culminating in a spine-chilling desperate act.

On this treacherous odyssey to restoration and redemption, the veils of darkness lift, and he now lives in a world that is not stark black and white but where the grey mitigates the storms.

An inspiring story of one man’s rise from poverty and oppression to success and fame in the international world of opera...

It is a difficult undertaking for any human to escape the cycle of poverty, but to do so from one of the world’s most complex political systems, with a brutal history of segregation and deprivation, is nothing short of a miracle. Yet Musa Ngqungwana’s story doesn’t end there. Not only did he manage to extricate himself from his impoverished past, but he found his way to the great opera houses of the world, attaining immense success in an affluent art form that bears no resemblance to his upbringing or culture. Musa’s life and career are proof that any human can overcome the devastating effects of discrimination and poverty.

Odyssey Of An African Opera Singer chronicles Musa’s journey from the townships of South Africa to the world stage. It is a story of hope, showing how humans, no matter their situation, have the opportunity to claim their gifts, develop them and use them to help others in need. A captivating story that will inspire anyone who has ever had a dream...

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.

’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”.

Met sy heel eerste verskyning op televisie as hoërskool-laaitie het Rian van Heerden reeds die volk die josie ingemaak. Sedertdien het hy dikwels koerantvoorblaaie gehaal - en is telkens afgedank! - vir sy omstrede uitlatings. In dié boek skryf hy onbeskaamd oor al die goed wat mense meen hy eerder nié moes gesê het nie. Hy maak vir die eerste keer sy hart oop oor sy persoonlike lewe, sy worsteling met gaywees en sy eerste liefdesverhouding. Blatant eerlik, skreeusnaaks, aangrypend.

Late Reggae musician Lucky Dube is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s iconic stars who left a legacy of love, tolerance, and change through his music. His words were weapons fighting racial discrimination, inequality, and all sorts of injustices in the world, awakening the spiritual and cultural heritage of the African people. While most fans are familiar with the performer, very few got to know the man behind the music—a humble, deeply spiritual, courageous, respectful, wise, and prophetic individual.

"Walking a Mile in Your Shoes: My Spiritual Journey with Lucky Dube" is Lenah Mochoele’s tribute to her friend and spiritual mentor. Through her book, Mochoele gives an account of the spiritual journey of the South African-born world-famous reggae star and hit-maker Lucky Dube. His rise from a simple rural life is told through spiritual anecdotes that cast a different light on the straight-talking reggae luminary. The life of Lucky Dube is presented through a lens that gives the reader insight into why the singer, composer, and producer's music focused on the suffering and plight of the poor, as well as human rights abuses, among other chosen subjects.

This aspect of Lucky Dube is brought into the spotlight years after his passing at the hands of criminals—a terrible crime that almost threatened to overshadow the legacy of this achiever, messenger, and musician par excellence.

The book shares stories of Lucky’s early life, the severe struggles and hardships of his youth, through to his deeply philosophical years which manifested in his music, advocating for peace and change wherever he went. His songs continue to reverberate throughout every corridor of our households, our dusty streets, and throughout every length and breadth of Africa, the diaspora, and beyond.

At a spiritual level, this book is a wonderful and powerful reminder to rekindle one's own connection and relationship with God, to live with Him and not renounce Him.

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.

Jeremy Maggs has been a journalist and a television and radio presenter for over 30 years, with a front-row seat to major news events in the run-up to and during the birth of South Africa’s democracy and beyond. He was also the host of the hugely successful television show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, and so became a household name.

He has worked with some of the country’s most respected journalists, interviewed many famous people from around the world, and been at the forefront of developments as the craft morphed into a social media hydra. From Nelson Mandela’s release from prison to his death in 2013, and throughout the many political and news events that have gripped South Africans, Jeremy has been in the thick of the newsrooms that covered the stories.

Written in an engaging and self-deprecating style, this book is an unexpectedly funny and candid, behind-the-scenes account of what was unfolding in those newsrooms as the stories broke, peppered with anecdotes around those involved in making those stories happen.

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.

Andile Gaelesiwe is the adored Khumbul' ekhaya host. She was raped by her father at the age of 11. The second rape was by a taxi driver who beat her up. Andile entered the music scene with the big hit of the late 90s, Abuti Yo. She started Open Disclosure for rape survivors. This fierce, at times funny memoir, an insight into Andile’s consciousness that keeps reviving her will reverberate in young and adult readers.