Xoliswa Nduneni-Ngema loved the theatre and dreamed of being an actress. She soon discovered that acting wasn't for her – managing productions was. She meets rising-star, Mbongeni Ngema and they marry.  As his success grows, they start a company that births the hit Sarafina! But beneath the stardom, Xoliswa experiences constant abuse.  With Fred Khumalo, she tells her powerful story. 

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.

What is the origin of the word ‘bluetooth’? Which UK football ground is flanked by Bloemfontein & South Africa roads? When walking round Rondebosch Common, why is it wise not to go widdershins?

These are a few of the questions put to John Maytham by 567 CapeTalk listeners in the Rapid Fire insert on the late drive-time show. Join him on a tour of the oddest, arcane and most surprising questions – and be tickled by the weird and wonderful answers.

Black And White Bioscope recovers a neglected chapter in the histories of world cinema and Africa. It tells the story of movie production in Africa that long predated francophone African films and Nollywood that are the focus of most histories of this industry.

At the same time as Hollywood was starting, a film industry in Southern Africa was surging ahead in integrating production, distribution, and exhibition. African Film Productions Limited made silent movies using technical and acting talent from Britain, the United States, and Australia, as well as from Africa. These included not only the original “long trek movie” and the prototype for the movies Zulu and Zulu Dawn but also the first King Solomon's Mines and the original Blue Lagoon, featuring African actors such as Goba, Tom Zulu, and Msoga Mwana, who starred as the black revolutionary in Prester John.

In this lavishly illustrated book, fifty movies are reconstructed with graphic photographs and plot synopses—plus quotations from reviews—so that readers can rediscover this long-lost treasure trove of silent cinema.

Both a deeply personal memoir and a glimpse into their socio- political activism, Every Day Is An Opening Night by Des and Dawn Lindberg documents the joys and challenges of a lifetime in South African theatre – as musicians, performers, song writers, stage designers, managers, impresarios and ultimately legends of the entertainment industry.

The book traces the duo’s 55-year career, from singing folk songs in the Troubadour coffee-bar in Johannesburg to taking their “Folk on Trek” shows on tour across South Africa and (then) Rhodesia, and producing and performing in major musicals all over southern Africa. Highlights of their story include their controversial multiracial production of Godspell, the duo’s legendary Sunday-night Soirées and the founding of the annual Naledi Theatre Awards, now in their 18th year.

Their story unfolds during a turbulent era in South Africa’s history: a time when local unrest, international opprobrium, sanctions and an intransigent government combined to create a challenging environment for artistes. Along the way, they worked with famous musicians, endured Special Branch attention, had their albums banned, won and lost court-cases… and quietly persevered, undaunted, as musical anti-apartheid activists.

Their friends and collaborators constitute a roll call of some of the best-loved personalities in the arts and show business, from Jeremy Taylor and Mark Banks to Johnny Clegg and John Kani, with appearances by the legendary Taubie Kushlick, Pieter-Dirk Uys, author Gordon Forbes, pianist Richard Clayderman and UK comedian Spike Milligan. The reminiscences are told with a light touch – sometimes poignant, frequently funny – and enhanced by a generous gallery of photographs.

While the original manuscript was completed before the tragic loss of Dawn in December 2020, the book now stands in honour of her life, telling the tale of two pioneers of South African entertainment in their own words. As Des writes in the coda: “If this book achieves nothing else, I am determined that it will help me to sign off on our story in a way that does justice to the extraordinary leader, wife, mother, partner and lover Dawn was. Our story is a joyful one, and we tell it together as a celebration of life.”

Die beste resepte van die gewilde potjiekosreeks op Via. Van eenvoudig tot deftig, goedkoop tot duur – maar altyd gesellig en watertand lekker. Resepte vir voor- en hoofgeregte, bykosse en selfs nageregte, alles op die vuur. Potjies soos geroomde mossels, volstruisnekkerrie, lamskenkel, waterblommetjiebredie en ’n uithaler sjokalade-toringkoek! Met ’n verskeidenheid brode, om die laaste lekseltjie sous op te skraap – dus mos nou lekker!

Die geskiedenis van die eerste 59 jaar van die SAUK se bestaan; vanaf 1936 tot 1995. Die vertel ook die ontstaan van openbare uitsaai, die missie en doelwitte daarvan en waarom dit hersien moet word.

Die politieke element word bespreek: Watter soort stut was die SAUK vir apartheid? Watter rol het die SAUK gespeel as sleutelspeler in die transformasieproses? Daar word gekyk na politieke inmenging en aanstellings wat direk uit die Uitsaaiminister se staatsdepartement gemaak is. Ook ingespan is die SAUK se sleutelrol in geskiedkundige gebeure: Die vrylating van Nelson Mandela en die vryheidsverkiesing van 1994.

Die boek behoort nie net die wye publiek nie, maar ook akademici, historici en politici te interesseer.

1866. In a coastal village in southern England, Nell picks violets for a living. Set apart by her community because of the birthmarks that speckle her skin, Nell’s world is her beloved brother and devotion to the sea.

But when Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders arrives in the village, Nell is kidnapped. Her father has sold her, promising Jasper Jupiter his very own leopard girl. It is the greatest betrayal of Nell's life, but as her fame grows, and she finds friendship with the other performers and Jasper’s gentle brother Toby, she begins to wonder if joining the show is the best thing that has ever happened to her.

In London, newspapers describe Nell as the eighth wonder of the world. Figurines are cast in her image, and crowds rush to watch her soar through the air. But who gets to tell Nell’s story? What happens when her fame threatens to eclipse that of the showman who bought her? And as she falls in love with Toby, can he detach himself from his past and the terrible secret that binds him to his brother?

Moving from the pleasure gardens of Victorian London to the battle-scarred plains of the Crimea, Circus of Wonders is an astonishing story about power and ownership, fame and the threat of invisibility.

A 3-D masterpiece celebrating Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from New York Times best-selling pop-up engineer Matthew Reinhart.

Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Guide To Hogwarts is an exhilarating, interactive guide to the iconic school of witchcraft and wizardry. This book features spectacular pop-up re-creations of key locations inside and outside Hogwarts castle, and it opens flat to form a pop-up map of the castle and its grounds—including the Quidditch pitch, the Forbidden Forest, and beyond. In addition to large pops on each spread, numerous mini-pops will bring to life beloved elements from the Harry Potter films, such as the Marauder's Map and the Flying Ford Anglia.

Each pop will include insightful text about Hogwarts as seen in the films, making for a must-have collectible for fans of the wizarding world.

A unique cocktail of personal memoir, cultural criticism and Hollywood history by the one and only Quentin Tarantino.

In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with CINEMA SPECULATION, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans - and all movie lovers - could have hoped for.

Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.

At once film criticism, film theory, a feat of reporting, and wonderful personal history, it is all written in the singular voice recognizable immediately as QT's and with the rare perspective about cinema possible only from one of the greatest practitioners of the artform ever.

Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited first work of fiction - at once hilarious, delicious, and brutal - is the always surprising, sometimes shocking new novel based on his Academy Award-winning film.

RICK DALTON - Once he had his own TV series, but now Rick's a washed-up villain-of-the week drowning his sorrows in whiskey sours. Will a phone call from Rome save his fate or seal it?

CLIFF BOOTH - Rick's stunt double, and the most infamous man on any movie set because he's the only one there who might have gotten away with murder . . .

SHARON TATE - She left Texas to chase a movie-star dream, and found it. Sharon's salad days are now spent on Cielo Drive, high in the Hollywood Hills.

CHARLES MANSON - The ex-con's got a bunch of zonked-out hippies thinking he's their spiritual leader, but he'd trade it all to be a rock 'n' roll star.

HOLLYWOOD 1969 - YOU SHOULDA BEEN THERE

Joan Collins has been a diarist from the age of twelve, writing enthusiastically over the years. She dictated most of these entries in real time into a mini-tape recorder at the end of the day, and now she is spilling the beans - well, nearly all of them.

What you will discover was written when Joan 'felt like it' between 1989 and 2009. Whether it is an encounter with a superstar or a member of the Royal Family, or her keen and honest insights into other celebrities at dinner parties and events, Joan is honest and unapologetic.

Taking us on a dazzling tour around the globe - from exclusive restaurants in Los Angeles to the glittering beaches of St Tropez, from dinner parties in London to galas in New York City - some of the characters you will meet in these pages include Rod Stewart, Princess Margaret, Donald Trump, Michael Caine, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Rupert Everett, Roger Moore, Shirley MacLaine, Andrew Lloyd Webber and many more.

Her diaries are intimate and witty, and they pull no punches, with NO apologies to anyone mentioned in them!

Hykie Berg is ’n bekende film- en TV-akteur, geliefd en gewild reg oor Suid-Afrika. Hy is ook 'n verslaafde. Op die kruin van sy suksesloopbaan verloor Hykie alles en draai by die dood om. Hier vertel hy sy verhaal openhartig, van die dwelmhole van Hillbrow tot in 'n maksimum-sekuriteitsel in die Weskoppies-hospitaal, waar God hom van 'n gewisse dood red. Hykie nooi jou uit om te onthou dat God se liefde ook vir jou bedoel is, en dat, al doen ons wat, God ons nie laat gaan nie.

In 2012 verdwyn Binnelanders se geliefde Elise Kruger sonder waarskuwing van kykers se televisieskerms af. Lindie Stander, wat die rol van die vermaaklike Elise vertolk, was op die kruin van haar loopbaan toe sy in ’n bloedbevlekte bed in ’n staatshospitaal wakker word. Hier het sy besef dat sy haar rol en haar lewe soos sy dit ken, kwyt is.

Lindie Stander: Agter my glimlag is die eerlike ervaring van dit wat kykers nie op skerm sien nie: die verpletterende verlies van haar pa, haar worsteling met dwelmmisbruik en rehabilitasie, ’n lewe met depressie en ’n gewonde vrou se genadelose soeke na ’n liefde wat kan heelmaak.

In haar bekende, deernisvolle stem vertel Lindie haar hartverskeurende, maar hoopvolle verhaal soos net sy kan: sonder skroom en met ’n goeie skeut humor.

Marvel Entertainment was a struggling toymaker not even twenty years ago. Today, Marvel Studios is the dominant player both in Hollywood and in global pop culture. But what accounts for its stunning rise?

In MCU, beloved culture writers Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards draw on more than a hundred interviews with actors, producers, directors, and writers to present the definitive chronicle of Marvel Studios and its sole, ongoing production, the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As they delve into the studio’s key moments – from the contentious hiring of Robert Downey Jr. for Iron Man to the negotiations over Disney’s acquisition of Marvel to studio head Kevin Feige’s embrace of streaming TV – the authors demonstrate that the genius of Marvel was its resurrection and modification of Hollywood’s old studio system.

Dishy and authoritative, MCU is the first book to tell the Marvel Studios story in full – and an essential, effervescent account of popular culture.

National Book Club Conference ‘Book of the Year’ Award Winner!

From her more than three hundred appearances for film and television, stage and cabaret, performing comedy or drama, as an unforgettable lead or a scene stealing supporting character, Jenifer Lewis has established herself as one of the most respected, admired, talented, and versatile entertainers working today. This “Mega Diva” and costar of the hit sitcom black-ish bares her soul in this touching and poignant—and at times side-splittingly hilarious—memoir of a Midwestern girl with a dream, whose journey took her from poverty to the big screen, and along the way earned her many accolades.

With candor and warmth, Jenifer Lewis reveals the heart of a woman who lives life to the fullest. This multitalented “force of nature” landed her first Broadway role within eleven days of her graduation from college and later earned the title “Reigning Queen of High-Camp Cabaret.” In the audaciously honest voice that her fans adore, Jenifer describes her transition to Hollywood, with guest roles on hits like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Friends. Her movie Jackie’s Back! became a cult favorite, and as the “Mama” to characters portrayed by Whitney Houston, Tupac Shakur, Taraji P. Henson, and many more, Jenifer cemented her status as the “Mother of Black Hollywood.”

When an undiagnosed mental illness stymies Jenifer’s career, culminating in a breakdown while filming The Temptations, her quest for wholeness becomes a harrowing and inspiring tale, including revelations of bipolar disorder and sex addiction.

Written with no-holds-barred honesty and illustrated with more than forty color photographs, this gripping memoir is filled with insights gained through a unique life that offers a universal message: “Love yourself so that love will not be a stranger when it comes.”

Poetic Inquiry for the Social and Human Sciences: Voices from the South and North enriches human and social science research by introducing new voices, insights, and epistemologies.

Poetic inquiry, or poetry as research, is a literary and performance arts-based approach. It combines the arts and humanities with scientific inquiry to enhance social research. By challenging conventional epistemological traditions that assert a detached stance of the known from the knower, poetic inquiry proposes a method of decolonising knowledge production. This book expands on ground-breaking work done in the Global North on transdisciplinary poetic inquiry scholarship by bringing it into conversation with knowledge from the Global South. It allows for South-North leadership and places unique scholarly contributions from the South at the centre of transnational discussions.

In exploring and advancing poetic inquiry in the Global South, part of the book’s decolonising agenda is to challenge and expand the definition of poetic inquiry and recognise the contributions from diverse traditions and social practices. The peer-reviewed chapters are written by new and established scholars in various knowledge fields worldwide. The chapters’ scholarly contributions are complemented by an original poetry sequence interwoven through the book. Critically, Voices and Silences shows how poetry can engender innovative research that addresses pressing social justice issues, such as inclusion and decolonisation.

Poetic Inquiry will interest researchers and academics who seek to advance social research by adopting new epistemologies and approaches that integrate the value of the Global South’s contributions and foster expanded South-North collaborations.

The one and only Zadie Smith, prize-winning, bestselling author of Swing Time and White Teeth, is back with a second unmissable collection of essays.

No subject is too fringe or too mainstream for Zadie Smith's insatiable curiosity. From social media to the environment, from Jay-Z to Karl Ove Knausgaard, she has endless enthusiasmand the boundless wit, insight and wisdom to match. In Feel Free, pop culture, high culture, social change and political debate all get the Zadie Smith treatment, dissected with razor-sharp intellect, set brilliantly against the context of the utterly contemporary, and considered with a deep humanity and compassion.

This electrifying new collection showcases its author as a true literary powerhouse, demonstrating once again her credentials as an essential voice of her generation.

In the spirit of Amy Poehler’s Yes Please, Lena Dunham’s Not That Kind of Girl, and Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist, a powerful collection of essays about gender, sexuality, race, beauty, Hollywood, and what it means to be a modern woman.

One month before the release of the highly anticipated film The Birth of a Nation, actress Gabrielle Union shook the world with a vulnerable and impassioned editorial in which she urged our society to have compassion for victims of sexual violence. In the wake of rape allegations made against director and actor Nate Parker, Union—a forty-four-year-old actress who launched her career with roles in iconic ’90s movies—instantly became the insightful, outspoken actress that Hollywood has been desperately awaiting. With honesty and heartbreaking wisdom, she revealed her own trauma as a victim of sexual assault: "It is for you that I am speaking. This is real. We are real."

In this moving collection of thought provoking essays infused with her unique wisdom and deep humor, Union uses that same fearlessness to tell astonishingly personal and true stories about power, color, gender, feminism, and fame. Union tackles a range of experiences, including bullying, beauty standards, and competition between women in Hollywood, growing up in white California suburbia and then spending summers with her black relatives in Nebraska, coping with crushes, puberty, and the divorce of her parents. Genuine and perceptive, Union bravely lays herself bare, uncovering a complex and courageous life of self-doubt and self-discovery with incredible poise and brutal honesty. Throughout, she compels us to be ethical and empathetic, and reminds us of the importance of confidence, self-awareness, and the power of sharing truth, laughter, and support.

In this ground-breaking collection of critical essays, 15 writers explore the experimental, interdisciplinary and radically transgressive field of contemporary live art in South Africa.

Set against a contemporary South African society that is chronologically `post' apartheid, but one that continues to grapple with material redress, land redistribution and systemic racism, Acts of Transgression finds a representation of the complexity of this moment within the rich potential of a performative art form that transcends disciplinary boundaries and aesthetic conventions. The collection probes live art's intersection with crisis and socio-political turbulence, shifting notions of identity and belonging, embodied trauma and loss, questions of archive, memory and the troubling of colonial systems of knowing,

an interrogation of narratives of the past and visions for the future.These diverse essays, analysing the work of more than 25 contemporary South African artists and accompanied by a striking visual record of more than 50 photographs, represent the first major critical study of contemporary live art in South Africa; a study that is as timeous as it is imperative.

This book explores theatre and performance as participatory research practices for exploring the everyday of the city. Taking an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa as its central case study, the book consider how theatre and performance might be both useful practical tools in considering the everyday city, as well as conceptual lenses for understanding it.

The author establishes an understanding of space as ever-evolving and formed through the ongoing relationship between things, human and non-human and considers how theatre and performance offer useful paradigms for learning about and working with city spaces. As ephemeral, embodied, material artistic practices, theatre and performance mirror the nature of everyday life. The book discusses theatre and performance games and playmaking processes as offering valuable ways of discovering daily acts of place-making and providing insights that more conventional research methods may not allow. Yet the book also considers how seeing daily city life as a kind of performance, a kind of theatre in its own right, helps to further understandings of city spaces as ever evolving through complex webs of relationships.

This book will be of interest to academics, academic practitioners and post-graduate students in the fields of theatre and performance studies, urban studies and cultural geography.

Blaise Koch is an award-winning actor who has appeared in 263 professional productions, from My Fair Lady to Shakespeare, to playing Tannie Evita's beloved son with Pieter Dirk-Uys. His repertoire is wide and he is considered one of South Africa's most talented and versatile actors. Blaise Koch is also HIV positive, and has had full-blown AIDS for the last eleven years. This is his story of fame and success and remarkable courage that is coloured with his wry sense of humour and self-deprecation.

Blaise has no time for self-pity and continues to work, with a schedule that would leave most people breathless. This book is a testament to the life of an actor and how he deals with his experience of being diagnosed with AIDS. Many well-known celebrities and media personalities feature in this story, which makes story even more interesting with some wicked anecdotes.

No other South African artist of his stature and acclaim has acknowledged his or her HIV status before, and Koch's intention is to publicly acknowledge his with the publication of this book

Reynardt Hugo speel Dr Tertius Jonker in Binnelanders en was van 2011 tot 2019 lid van die Afrikaanse popgroep ADAM. Tog, agter al sy sukses, sangtoere, toekennings en die vele lofbetuigings is daar ’n diep gewonde en verlore siel. Nes duisende ander mans, het Reynardt jare lank gestoei om sy verwondheid met drank, dagga, vroue en pornografie te verdoesel. Sy oorlog was ’n soeke na betekenis en aanvaarding.

Soldaat vertel van ’n klein seuntjie en die verwarrende wêreld waarin hy grootgeword het. Hy praat eerlik en opreg oor die impak wat sy ouers se egskeiding op hom gehad het, en die invloed van drankmisbruik in hulle huis, en hoe hy dit alles as jong seun ervaar het en daarvan moes sin maak. Hy praat openlik oor sy swakheid vir vroue en die gevolge van sy dade.

Vandag is Reynardt Hugo ’n suksesvolle jong man wat ’n groot impak maak. Die pad was lank en rof en hy moes vele uitdagings oorkom, maar vandag is sy lewe ’n ware getuienis van wat God kan doen met iemand wat op moedverloor se vlakte sit, en hoe God ’n storie van verwoesting in ’n storie van hoop kan verander.

Reynardt se verhaal is boeiend. Dit bevat al die elemente van tragedie, intrige, neerlaag en oorwinning, maar ook die heel belangrikste bestanddeel: die krag van die evangelie van Jesus Christus.

Celebrated actor, personality, and all-around nerd Wil Wheaton updates his memoir of collected blog posts with all new material and annotations as he reexamines one of the most interesting lives in Hollywood and fandom!

Wil Wheaton grew up. Ideally, this is what everyone does. But most of us don’t do it in front of millions of people. Wil was a very famous kid – right up until he wasn’t. After that, he wasn’t sure who he was at all. So, in 2001, he started a blog. It was less about being a famous child than about being a not-so-famous grownup. He wrote about his pets and his hobbies, punk rock and parenting, board games and birthdays and (most importantly) burritos.

He thought he was writing for an audience of one: himself. To be fair, he was only off by about 3 million people. In Still Just a Geek, an older, somewhat wiser Wil revisits Just a Geek, his 2004 collection of posts from that blog, with all-new reflections on nerd culture, fame, love, trauma, tragedy, and confronting the worst parts of yourself.

Equal parts funny and poignant, Still Just a Geek explores the folly of youth and the pain of experience – and all the strange, awful, beautiful adventures in between.

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A mind-blowing and emotionally honest tale of survival against all odds.' BERNARDINE EVARISTO 'A breathtaking memoir...I was so moved by this book.' Oprah 'It is startlingly honest and, at times, a jaw-dropping read, charting her rise from poverty and abuse to becoming the first African-American to win the triple crown of an Oscar, Emmy and Tony for acting.' BBC News THE DEEPLY PERSONAL, BRUTALLY HONEST ACCOUNT OF VIOLA'S INSPIRING LIFE In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose and my strength, but also to finding my voice in a world that didn't always see me. As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. They are bogarted, reinvented to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone who is searching for a way to understand and overcome a complicated past, let go of shame, and find acceptance. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be...you. Finding Me is a deep reflection on my past and a promise for my future. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.