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.

Our Ultimate 4×4 Trips Collection by Mariëlle Renssen is for all travellers who want to get their 4×4’s onto dirt roads. The book offers 22 fantastic 4×4 routes which have been driven and verified from the author’s own personal experience.

Our Ultimate 4×4 Trips Collection consists of detailed maps and 22 great routes which include accommodation, top sites, tourist resources, a fauna and flora checklist, packing list, geological information, full-colour photographs throughout, best and worst experience per trip, turn-by-turn descriptions of the routes driven, facts on each region, GPS points and a road atlas section of Southern Africa. The Book includes a bonus CD with GPS tracks of each route, and a PDF image of each route map.

Routes covered:

• Addo NP
• Baviaanskloof
• Biedouw Valley
• Blyde River Canyon
• Camdeboo 4×4 Trail
• Camdeboo NP
• Cederberg Central
• Mozambique
• Die Hel
• Drakensberg Passes
• Gannaga
• Hluhluwe-iMfolozi NP
• iSimangaliso St Lucia
• Karoo NP
• Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
• Lesotho-Drakensberg
• Mac Mac
• Forestry 4×4 Trail
• Mapungubwe NP
• Marakele NP
• Meiringspoort
• Mokala NP
• Mountain Zebra NP
• Namakwa Trail
• Namaqua NP
• Northeastern Cape
• North Kruger
• Central Kruger
• Northern Namibia
• Ouberg
• Richtersveld NP
• Sodwana
• Southern Lesotho
• Southern Namibia
• Swatberg
• Tankwa Karoo NP
• Tshugulu 4×4 Trail
• Garub, Skelton Coast and Etosha NP
• Caprivi and Okavango Panhandle

The book will inspire you to travel and make you believe that you are capable of putting together stunning nature tours, without the assistance of a travel agent. You don’t need to be a Rambo to attempt these routes. You will be so bitten by the back-road bug that offers zero cellphone reception or Wi-Fi. You will end up wanting to do more and more. Or if you are an armchair traveller, simply experience these routes through the eyes of the author, to see some of the most amazing places in the world.

In 1994, Brad and Paige Holmes opened a small, live-music venue in the bohemian suburb of Melville in Johannesburg. They called it Bassline, which very soon became synonymous with cigarette smoke, great jazz and nights you wished would never end. They later moved the club to Newtown where it grew in prominence as the ultimate venue for live music, hosting amazing artists like Thandiswa Mazwai, Jimmy Dludlu, Lira, The Soil and Grammy Award-winning group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

In 2016 word spread like wildfire that everyone’s favourite club was closing its doors forever; this place that held all the promises of a new South Africa, a place where people of all races could come together, share a drink, dance and fall in love was to be no more. But as Bassline starts its new journey with Live @ the Bassline, yet another great story begins with Last Night At The Bassline.

In this book, esteemed music historian Professor David Coplan tells the story of Bassline and the Holmes’s journey in it, thus giving musicians and jazz fans something to hold on to even after its closure. This book is a tangible piece of the magic to take home and savour. And those who were never there will be given a chance to experience this dream.

With more than fifty iconic photographs from Oscar Gutierrez and other great photographers, the book is more than just a memoir. It is a gritty, smoky, passionate slice of time. Bassline will always be a reminder of what it feels like to live the impossible.

For many people, visiting South African game reserves is all about ticking off the ‘Big Five’. But what about those animals you’ve got almost zero chance of seeing?

Justin Fox goes in search of South Africa’s most elusive animals – the ‘Impossible Five’ – the Cape mountain leopard, aardvark, pangolin, naturally occurring white lion and the riverine rabbit.

Besides the animals, the book is peopled with an immensely likeable cast of characters and provides compelling insights into wild South Africa and the local game-ranging and natural-science industries.

As Africa's oldest orchestra, and certainly its most versatile, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra is a proud part of the fabric of the Mother City. Founded in 1914 as a municipally funded ensemble, the orchestra was privatised in 1986 and later merged with the former Capab orchestra, achieving independence in 2000.

A Century Of Symphony tells the story of Cape Town’s orchestras over the past 100 years. Bringing together reminiscences, anecdotes and heartfelt stories by players, conductors and audience members, images of the orchestra both past and present, and information gathered from city, newspaper and university archives, A Century Of Symphony offers a timeless perspective on the place of orchestral music in the life of the city.

The challenges of running an orchestra in the 21st century are formidable, but the orchestra’s mission to deliver first-class music played by first-class musicians in a sustainable way has never been more apparent. Outreach and education efforts in disadvantaged communities point the way to the future. This is a story not only worth telling, but also worth preserving, for Cape Town’s orchestras have been the cultural jewel of the city for 100 years.

(Includes a shrinkwrapped CD of music played by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra)

This exciting third book from David Bristow covers everything environmental in South Africa that you always wanted to know about.

The topics in this book include pesticides, poaching, petrol, plastics, population, pollination, pollution, pods, politics, pharmaceuticals, people, prophets, power and poop. Find out what industrially manufactured foods and large-scale farming are doing to us; how state capture has derailed our civil service and triggered sewerage spills, oil slicks and air pollution; who benefits most from health supplements; and what are the real costs of generating power and what works best – coal, nuclear, fracking, solar or wind.

You will also read about the good deeds of our eco heroes: those who bring water and hope to stricken towns; who farm regeneratively and sell us wholesome foods; who clean up other people’s messes; as well as individual superheroes who nurture their own back gardens. This book celebrates some of them. Written in the same engaging style as his previous two books in the series Stories from the Veld series (The Game Ranger, the Knife, the Lion and the Sheep and Of Hominins, Hunter-Gatherers and Heroes), this book is a journey into unravelling the environmental landscape of South Africa.

So many people watch films and yet so few know how to write a film well. Film writing is a very specific art form. Over the past twenty-something years Janet van Eeden made every mistake in the book and eventually turned to the experts. Using advice from screenwriting experts such as Robert McKee and Christopher Vogler, among many others, Janet van Eeden developed an effective approach to scriptwriting.

Cut to the Chase breaks down the essentials of writing for film. Janet van Eeden shares her experience of writing feature films and short films, as well as her many years of lecturing, in this book. This user-friendly manual unlocks the world of scriptwriting for students. It includes a step-by-step writing programme, setting specific tasks after each chapter, so that the reader can build up their own film script.

The reader is guided towards writing a well thought-out first draft script written to internationally acceptable standards.

Four full-colour posters depicting different animal groups, featuring their names in four languages – English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu. Insects of Southern Africa illustrates some 60 of the region’s common and conspicuous insects, with icons showing which are poisonous. These colourful educational posters make beautiful wall hangings, and are ideal gifts for young nature-lovers. Excellent aids in a classroom, home, nature centre or library.

Crafted in his signature flair-for-detail and humorous writing style, veteran sports journalist Liam Del Carme takes rugby fans and Springbok supporters on the ride of a lifetime in this behind-the-scenes account, Winging It: On tour with the Boks. With more than 25 years’ experience as an insightful sports writer, Del Carme has travelled to six of the seven continents as part of the press corps who follow and write about the national rugby team in all its iterations at international level. His anecdotes will have you wide-eyed with wonderment and chuckling appreciatively at his talent for telling a funny story.

Winging It: On Tour With The Boks is an insider’s view of life on tour from one of South Africa’s most enduring sports writers, Liam Del Carme, while he follows the much-cherished national rugby team, the Springboks.

Del Carme takes the reader across continents and time zones as he shares the helter-skelter atmosphere of meeting looming writing deadlines while finding ways to maintain his sanity. The book explores the ebb and flow of touring with one of rugby’s iconic teams since 1996, including three Rugby World Cups, various Tri-Nations and Rugby Championships, as well as end-of-year tours, in destinations all over the world. He explores the characters, destinations and his travel companions while sharing his highs and lows of covering great rugby moments.

In the book, the reader gets to see the personal side of prominent sports personalities, including Nick Mallett, Harry Viljoen, Gcobani Bobo, Jake White, Eddie Jones, Joost van der Westhuizen, Clive Woodward, Peter de Villiers, Graham Henry, Jean de Villiers, Naas Botha, John Hart, Owen Nkumane, Chester Williams, Allister Coetzee, Heyneke Meyer, Rudolf Straeuli, Os du Randt and Dick Muir.

From a carcass competition in the Karoo to a shambolic murder trial in Cape Town, William Dicey’s essays freewheel across an open terrain of interests. Dicey is curious and inventive, weaving strands of essay, journalism, fiction and self-reportage into something uniquely his own. Mongrel investigates a range of topics – radical environmentalism, the fault lines between farmer and farm worker, the joys and sorrows of reading – yet drifts of concern and sensibility draw the collection together. Several essays touch on how books can move, and sometimes maul, their readers. Mongrel is idiosyncratic, witty, potent.

Pollinators, parasites, predators, decomposers – insects arguably play the most important roles in the functioning of the Earth’s ecosystems.

This lavishly illustrated and highly authoritative book is structured around southern Africa’s 13 distinct biomes; it

• reflects the essential role insects play in most ecological processes such as pollination, predation, parasitism, soil modifi cation and nutrient recycling;
• details how they serve as food for multitudes of other organisms, including bacteria and fungi, as well as specially adapted plants, insect-feeding arthropods, reptiles, birds and mammals;
• depicts the insects and phenomena described in some 1,600 photographs that accompany the accessible text;
• highlights the crucial role insects play as ecosystem service providers, giving intimate insight into the beauty and importance of insects in the natural world.
• includes a guide to each of the 25 insect orders found in southern Africa, with images showing their diagnostic characters.

Eco-friendly gardening is fast catching on. Butterflies are visible signs of a healthy garden, and, with their whimsical flight patterns and glorious colours, they are among the most alluring of our aerial visitors. Gardening for butterflies shows how to attract these beautiful insects, giving step-by-step instructions for planning and planting a garden that will cater for the greatest number and diversity of butterflies. Using a Durban garden as a case study, it includes a recommended layout and plant lists for this area, as well as for other regions around the country. The book showcases 95 garden butterflies and moths, showing their full life cycle, including pupa, eggs and caterpillar. Stunning photography and point-form text ensure accurate identification of each stage in the cycle, and an interesting introduction discusses such topics as the extraordinary process of metamorphosis and the curious habits of these mercurial insects. Whether you’re tempted to undertake a full-scale transformation of your garden to attract butterflies, make smaller adjustments to it, or if you simply want to identify those insects already visiting your space, this book will amaze and enchant you.

Four years. Seven continents. An unprecedented quest to document and preserve our last remaining wild lands.

In more than 200 striking images, acclaimed South African photographers Peter and Beverly Pickford have created an epic, unparalleled portrait of some of our planet’s most untouched places: from the heat-beaten country of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast to Alaska and the Yukon’s abundance of water, in ocean, river and lake; from the subantarctic islands’ wind-tossed shores in the south to the Arctic’s immense expanses of cracked pancake ice in the north; and the dazzling juxtaposition of desert and water in Australia’s Kimberley to the remote, frozen peaks of Tibet and Patagonia. Within these extreme landscapes, Beverly and Peter’s images illuminate and celebrate myriad forms of life: polar bears, rhinoceroses and bharal, as well as the humble lichen, are all evocatively pictured within the landscapes upon which they depend. This is a wildlife book like no other, its images aching with what words struggle to describe: the resonance of wilderness in our inner being, the power of land to transform our emotion, and our ability to transcend the immediate to become sublime.

Wild Land’s stunning images are accompanied by a fascinating text in which Peter not only vividly describes the photographers’ adventures in pursuit of wild land, but also delivers a timely message that highlights the urgent need for these lands to be preserved for the future of the planet – a future on which humankind’s very survival is dependent.

A photographic meander through Hermanus, the perfect souvenir for anyone who has ever visited this unique town.

Ever since 1503 when an off-course seafarer climbed Table Mountain to find out where on Earth he was, visitors to the Cape have toiled, scrambled, ridden on horseback, climbed or run to the top ... and written about it afterwards.

Taken together, these reports provide a fascinating biography of the mountain. Looked at separately, they are thrilling reads, penned by larger-than-life voyagers and, often unlikely, adventurers. The life-stories of 27 visitors are told with flair and humour. Together with the accounts of the ascents, they provide a riveting read.

This is the first time that the English translations of these reports, written in various languages, including Russian and Swedish, have been collected in one volume.

Southern Peninsula Classics is a collection of the most wonderful mountain adventures you will have the pleasure of experiencing on the southern Cape Peninsula – from Constantia Nek all the way down to the very tip of Cape Point.

It includes a selection of stunning hikes, from short, gentle ambles, to long, strenuous full day outings and everything between. It even has a two-day hike in the Cape of Good Hope Reserve. There are also a number of exciting scrambles up some of the more rocky areas and peaks, where sometimes a rope may be necessary for protection. And includes some of the more popular caves in the Kalk Bay mountains.

In addition, the book describes some of the easy to moderate rock climbs found along this part of the Table Mountain Chain, which are ideal if you are new to the climbing game and looking for climbs to sharpen your trad experience. Besides the vast selection of hikes, scrambles and climbs, Southern Peninsula Classics is also a treasure trove of tales, facts and historical anecdotes, that will keep you fascinated from page to page.

Whether you are a visitor to the beautiful Cape Peninsula seeking a once-off classic experience, a local who wants to explore the best that the Southern Peninsula has to offer, or someone simply interested in the tales and rich tapestry that surrounds this unique and special peninsula at the tip of Africa, this is a book that should not be missed.

“I had endured enough spaghetti arms and failed take-offs to last a lifetime. I wanted to, once again, move forward with my surfing. It took a simple idea to make that a reality”

Death of a Weekend Warrior is the story of Bernard’s surfing journey. It describes the highs, lows, people, places, and waves he has experienced over the past thirty years. For Bernard, a weekend warrior represents a plateauing of performance, a stagnation. The death of a weekend warrior represents his progression and development.

In this book, Katz unpacks his own insecurities and reflects on the many facets that make up the world of the average weekend surfer. His personal journey is intertwined with descriptions of famous surf spots and explanations of some of the nuances of surfing, localism, surfboard design, the art of tube riding, and more.

Life is like that sometimes draws readers into the unforgettable personal experiences that have shaped Khaya Dlanga’s world. Weaving heartfelt and often hilarious tales, from his rural Eastern Cape childhood to the profound losses he has faced as an adult, Khaya reflects on life’s unpredictability with warmth and wit.

The vivid stories explore love, loss, loyalty, forgiveness, tradition, chance, mischief, justice, responsibility and resilience, offering insights on relationships, identity and the lessons found in life’s toughest moments.

Both deeply moving and laugh-out-loud funny, Life is like that sometimes is an exploration of personal growth, faith and the power of storytelling to find meaning in it all.

The same poet who observes that “everybody is a bridge/’’ then asks in Zen-fashion, “Is it me, or is it you?/ are you reflection or projection / or the light that’s shining through?’’ can also note in a very down-to-earth way, that “If we hadn’t robbed the car washers of their coin/they might not have turned so mean, you know? / Let them earn a little income, bra/ If we’d chiselled our hearts open, tried to see it from the middle/we’d have softened just a little.”

And so, while keeping the big picture of the difficulties before us unflinchingly, Anton imbues such philosophical and political statements with images of very real people and their struggle for survival. But this is one aspect of his writing.

As importantly, through these ‘poems, prose- poems, notes & fragments’, runs a whimsical sense of his youth and later years as a white South African whose numerous relatives and friends make their appearance in the form of anecdotal history turned into poetic narrative.

In this way, the collection is varied, and very personal and true to Anton’s past and present, a very satisfying buffet that offers a unique taste of his Buddhistic soul.

The much-anticipated sequel to The Turtle Dove Told Me (Modjaji Books, 2013), which won a SALA Award in 2014, Stem Of The Moon is the second volume in a trilogy that spans the years 1990 - 2010.

In this collection, Sliepen paints impressions of a small town, Clarens in the Free State, as well as glimpses of life in the Netherlands and Bali. The reader shares the intimate experience of the birth of her first child and the poems take us on a profound journey through Namibia.

Sliepen's latest collection is a love song to a child, a lover, a mother, and the quiet strength of the moon that connects us all.

Growing up in extreme poverty in Messina (today Musina) in the early 1980s, Lovemore Ndou was forced to start boxing to protect himself and his family. At an early age, he experienced the injustices of the apartheid system when his arm was broken during a beating in a police cell and he saw his best friend gunned down in a protest march.

Through sheer determination, he managed to persevere and soon the Black Panther (his name in the ring) started winning matches. He left the country for Australia in the mid-1990s, made a name for himself internationally, and eventually became a triple-world champion despite setbacks and challenges. A number of big names in local and international boxing circles feature in the book, including Floyd Mayweather, with whom Ndou sparred during a stint in the USA.

Never knocked out in 64 professional bouts, he transitioned from combats in the ring to confrontations in the courtroom in a successful post-boxing career as a lawyer. Today he has his own practice in Sydney, Australia.

This book is the story of an exceptional man: David Samaai. The author takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the life of Davy (as he was affectionately known by his peers) who began his career in the streets of a beautiful suburb called the Ou Tuin (Old Garden) on the banks of the picturesque Berg River. Due to the Group Areas Act of the apartheid government they were forced to leave their homes. They had to move to the other side of the river to a new town: Paarl East.

Many thought that it was the end. On the contrary, it was anything but game set and match. Because of inspirational leadership, they managed to overcome apartheid and even excelled! David led by example. First, he conquered Wimbledon and then he led his community rebuilding their town, their schools, the mosque and the church. In fact, they rebuilt their entire lives.

Eventually it turned out to be a chronicle of the political emancipation of a community to which David Samaai was an inspiration, not because he was a legendary tennis player, a gifted musician or a committed school principal and teacher, but because he was and still is an example to any South African.

He left a legacy that with hard work and perseverance you can achieve your dream.

Die opspraakwekkende nuwe bundel met meer as 100 voorheen ongepubliseerde gedigte van Jeanne Goosen is vuurwarm op die rak. Die gedigte is deur die uitgewer en redakteur Petrovna Metelerkamp tussen Jeanne se dokumente ontdek toe sy navorsing gedoen het vir haar biografie oor Jeanne, Jeanne Goosen - 'n Lewe vol sinne.

Hierdie vierde, hersiene uitgawe van die gewilde naslaanbron vir liefhebbers van Afrikaanse blokraaisels, Moeggesoek is nou getiteld Pharos Blokraai­antwoorde. Die nuwe uitgawe is volledig herbewerk, en nuwe subkategorieë is ingesluit. Oplossings vir duisende internasionale en plaaslike feite is alfabeties volgens sewe temas gerangskik: Algemene kennis, Bybelkennis, geografie, die kunste, politiek, sport en skoonhede.

Die gids is in 'n handige formaat en gebruikersvriendelik, wat daartoe bydra om maklik daardie ontwykende antwoorde op die leidrade in jou Afrikaanse blokraaisel te vind. So, as jy die naam van 'n vulkaan in Antartika wil weet, of dalk die naam van ’n sanger wat deel was van die Beatles, die vorige staatshoof van Viëtnam of die naam van een van die maangode, het jy die Pharos Blokraai­antwoorde nodig.