In 2011 while riding his motorbike through Mali, on his way home from London to Johannesburg, Stephen McGown was taken captive in Timbuktu by Al Qaeda. He was held captive for almost six years giving him the unenviable record of Al Qaeda’s longest held prisoner.

Together with writer Tudor Caradoc-Davies, he wrote his book Six Years With Al Qaeda: The Stephen McGown Story. In this inspirational biography Steve uncovers the extraordinary lengths he went through to survive; from learning French and Arabic, converting to Islam and accepting a name given to him by his captors. His aim was to raise his status among Al Qaeda, keep himself alive and hopefully make his way back home.

Thousands of kilometres away in Johannesburg, the shock of his kidnapping hit his wife Cath and the rest of the McGown family. Working every option they could find, from established diplomatic protocols to the murky back channels of the kidnap game, they set to work on trying to free Steve.

Months turned to years and while the captive-captor dynamic was ever-present, Steve witnessed first hand what no westerner has ever seen before, giving him a nuanced perspective on one of the worlds most feared terrorist organisations.

Starting a South African digital media business in a time when nobody had a clue how to make money from online news was a bad idea. Doing it on a shoestring budget with a skeleton staff? Downright foolish.

A decade later, Daily Maverick has managed to establish itself as one of the country’s most influential and intelligent publications – but not without a disproportionate amount of death threats, grey hair and empty bank accounts. We Have A Game Changer lifts the lid on the often unbelievable efforts to keep the dream alive.

Marikana, Madiba, Mangaung, Nenegate, Nkandla, Oscar Pistorius, the rise of the EFF, the fall of SARS, 10 years of Zuma and, of course, the #GuptaLeaks: Daily Maverick covered it all with the depth and the signature wit that this plucky digital publisher has become known for. Tracking the biggest moments in South Africa over the last decade and the knock-on effect that they had on both the editorial and business endeavours, this is the story behind the stories. We Have A Game Changer tells what it was like to construct a first draft of history. And what a history that was.