Within the media and popular culture of the global north, cities like Johannesburg are often presented as a site of trouble. They’re the source of the immigrants, drugs, violence, poverty, disease and environmental crisis that worry nervous citizens of more “developed” cities. Even when they take centre stage in international media production, global south cities […]

In a debut novel that has been called “stunning,” “sparkling,” “compelling” and “engrossing” by reviewers in England, South African Helen Moffett has taken a minor character from Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and breathed life into her, creating “an enjoyable, even racy addition to the drawing-room industry of novels riffing off Austen.” The novel is […]

It’s been an incredible month for local author Lauren Beukes, whose 2013 novel “The Shining Girls” is to be made into a TV series by Leonardo di Caprio’s production company and whose latest novel has just been reviewed in The New York Times by no less than the thriller maestro Stephen King. “The Shining Girls,” […]

Supported by wealthy and powerful organisations like Safari Club International, the Dallas Safari Club and the National Rifle Association, and egged on by countless awards and record book listings, trophy hunters have gunned down 1.7 million wild animals in the past decade. Around 250,000 were endangered species. This is detailed in an alarming book, “Trophy […]

Johannesburg is famous for having one of the largest urban forests in the world, but now the South African city faces losing much of that extraordinary and beautiful 10-million tree canopy as a tiny beetle threatens to cause one of South Africa’s largest ecological tragedies. ‘Garden Style’ author Melanie Walker reports on the current crisis, […]

Drop everything for 30 minutes and read a book – that’s the message from Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga as she jumpstarted the reading revolution on Friday. The Minister urged schools to set aside 30 minutes for reading for enjoyment every day and called on parents to support their children in practising their reading skills […]

The argument has dragged on long enough about who should take the credit for bringing South Africa’s apartheid regime to an end. Of course, some will immediately respond by saying that apartheid has not yet been defeated – it still lives on in innumerable ways. But at least the regime that promulgated the legislation and […]

In summer, the familiar rushing sound of the Great Fish River pumping through our home town of Cradock in the Eastern Cape is often punctuated by the excited babble of youngsters as they navigate the gentle rapids on the inner tubes of tractor tyres… writes Julienne du Toit. In the late afternoons, while pensioners watch […]

On the advice of the State Librarian one fine day in the 1970s, a truck transported thousands of books and magazines from Pretoria’s Central Police Station to a dark hall at the Iscor state steel company, just outside the South African capital. A large mechanical shovel scooped up and dropped them into a 20-metre high […]

SOUTH AFRICA – Yesterday was the 115th anniversary of the birth of the author Alan Paton, who was honoured in a Google doodle that showed him looking pensively out of a train window at hills that are lovely beyond any singing… writes Gus Silber. The doodle quite brilliantly captured Paton’s flinty, thin-lipped severity of countenance, […]

South African author Jacques Pauw has posted a message Sunday on what people should do who have downloaded illegal PDF copies of his explosive new book about President Jacob Zuma and the ANC, “The President’s Keepers”. He writes: “I have been inundated with requests from people who want to pay me for the free PDF […]

In 2007, barely a year after the man who went on to become South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma, was acquitted on a charge of raping a young woman called “Khwezi” (the name given to Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo during her rape trial), gender activist Mmatshilo Motsei published “The Kanga and the Kangaroo Court”. The book was an unsparing account […]

Anybody who follows Pretoria boy – and international billionaire businessman – Elon Musk, knows his favourite book is ‘Lord of the Rings’ by JRR Tolkien (who was also born in South Africa). But not many people have stopped to ask Musk just why it inspires him so much… until Wednesday when a young student, Subham, […]

Advocate Thuli Madonsela has announced she is “supremely honoured and excited to partner with Pan Macmillan SA to publish my memoirs. Hope the insights shared will contribute meaningfully…” In a press release Friday, Pan Macmillan South Africa said it is “delighted to announce today that it will publish a memoir by Former Public Protector of South Africa, […]

South African comedian Trevor Noah has been promoting his book “Born a Crime” in the UK this weekend. In the video below he speaks to interviewer Krishnan Guru-Murthy, from Channel 4, about his book, what the Trump presidency will mean for America and the world, and about growing up in South Africa as a mixed […]

You’ve lived in London for 10 years and you’ve finally decided to move back to South Africa with your young family to be closer to the grandparents. But what do you do with your lovingly painted, renovated and lived-in nest egg in London? The Accidental Landlord: The Keys To Letting Out Your Own Property With […]

The author of ‘Bridge Over Blood River: The Rise and Fall of the Afrikaners’, Kajsa Norman, will be in conversation with John Battersby at an event in Trafalgar Square, London on Thursday evening, 19 November 2016. The book suggests that 20 years after the fall of apartheid in South Africa, the white Afrikaner minority “fears […]

South African expat ELSA BROWNE, who lives in the UK, is one of the first people on the planet to have read Trevor Noah‘s book ‘Born a Crime’, which will only hit stores in mid-November. As most people get their first peek at the book’s contents this week, with the New York Times publishing an excerpt, […]

South African seven-year-old, Michelle Nkamankeng – who recently made history as the youngest author from Africa to be included in the list of Top 10 youngest writers in the world – has shared her tips with BBC World Service, as well as several other international media outlets. Michelle’s self-published book, ‘Waiting for the Waves’, is […]

Congratulations to Athol Williams who has been awarded the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award for the second year running, becoming the first person to win it twice! It’s been an incredible week for Williams in which he not only won this award but also launched his autobiography – Pushing Boulders – AND was selected as one […]

Here’s the first look at South African comedian Trevor Noah‘s new book “Born a Crime”, out November 15th. Noah announced back in January that he had signed a deal with publisher Spiegel & Grau because “I couldn’t find a good book about myself, so I decided to write one”. The book is a collection of 18 […]

More than four years ago Johannesburg journalist Alex Eliseev heard snippets of the most extraordinary story of Betty Ketani – there was murder, kidnapping, a trail that ran dead, and sheer coincidence – and this week the 18-year case came to a tear-filled end as Ketani’s family laid her to rest. Aliseev, who has covered some pretty harrowing stories (the Haiti earthquake, […]

At a packed launch of the English book version of the compiled letters between literary royalty Andre Brink and Ingrid Jonker, Brink’s widow said Cape Town’s revered bookshop the Book Lounge was the perfect place to introduce the book to South Africa. “We came here a lot,” said Karina Brink. “We called it our lounge.” […]

Looking for deeper insight into South Africa – or just a good read? Here are snap reviews of classic South African books, covering everything from non-fiction to fiction to poetry, and featuring a range of the country’s greatest novelists, poets, journalists and historians. (Thanks to South African Book Fair for the main pic.) Non-fiction 1. Long Walk […]

Philani Dladla’s story is well known to those who know him as the Pavement Bookworm and have bought books from him on Empire Road in Johannesburg, South Africa. But now he has added author to his résumé, with his newly published book titled, of course, “The Pavement Bookworm”. Dladla – whom we wrote about in […]