Memoirs & Bios

Memoirs are stories told by one of the characters involved. They are meant to be ‘true’ in that they relate to an actual person’s experience. Biographies are similar, except that they are written by a third party, the biographer. South Africa is big on memoirs at the moment, perhaps largely because for so long people have felt ‘bottled up’ but are now much more able to see value in their experiences and to express them. This is an exciting time in local literature.

Memoirs & Bios

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It shouldn’t happen to a...
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It shouldn’t happen to a...

‘Okay….the decision has been made’ I advise Kim, my wife of 25 years. ‘I am now going to buy a farm, leave my law firm and pursue the country life. ‘This decision’, I continue, ‘is now final and irrevocable.  I have considered the issue, weighed up the pros and cons and am now confident that this warrants no more consideration.’

Price R170.00
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Landslide by Arthur Sithole
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Landslide by Arthur Sithole

Part memoir, part fact, part truth, certainly part of a blueprint to my greatest transformation Landslide not only documents an evolution towards a higher understanding, but is fundamentally, an account born of its own accord; when the truth about my life collided with the weight of my adversity.

Price R149.00
Lessons from a Rainbow...
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Lessons from a Rainbow...

Samuel John Frederick Platt was born two months prematurely and rushed into the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It soon became apparent that the new-born had a rare disease, confounding specialists and sending his parents, Melissa and Fred  Platt, on an emotional rollercoaster as his condition was misdiagnosed several times.

His distraught parents stood by Sam’s side and advocated for his needs, while feeling ignored by some of the health care professionals assigned to Sam’s care. After more than a year in a private hospital in Johannesburg, Sam’s parents managed to get a second opinion and secured a transfer to a hospital in Cape Town.

Price R220.00
Letters to Kuwait by Carlos...
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Letters to Kuwait by Carlos...

One day I suddenly thought, “My goodness, where’s Gareth?” So, I started looking. Last I heard, he was working with the British Army in Iraq, doing long stints: I tracked him down to prison cell in Kuwait. He had been used as a drug mule, nabbed and sentenced to death by hanging. His death was commuted to life and then further reduced to 15 years. When I located him, he had already been inside for four years. Thereafter I sent him a letter, every month, for 67 consecutive months. My Letters to Kuwait, were received by Gareth on his hidden device: news and comment on life in South Africa, my reflections on humanity and our world.

Price R290.00
Letters to Lionel
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Letters to Lionel

When poet, novelist & teacher Lionel Abrahams died in 2004, his wife, Jane Fox, wrote him a series of letters because she needed to go on talking to him. She found them in her computer 17 years later & was moved to show them to close friends. They suggested she share them with the wider public. 

This book includes small 'snapshots' in words of their life together; a Jane's-eye view of Lionel as a man rather than as a writer. It shows how a human spirit can rise above physical difficulties (Lionel suffered from cerebral palsy) to become a mentor for others & a creative artist himself. 

Letters to Lionel is a beguiling, unusual book. An inspiration to anyone who has lost a partner or loved one to make a healing connection back to them, & so find a source of courage to continue. 

Price R225.00
Life is not a rehearsal by...
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Life is not a rehearsal by...

Medical Memoirs of a small town South African Doctor. This book is dedicated to anyone who is a patient, who has been a patient or who may become a patient. In fiction stories and characters are created by man, but patients are God’s creations.

To those waiting in doctor’s rooms with pimples and painful wounds, sniffing and sneezing to mommies with new born babies and grannies who tell bedroom stories to little children. To the sick, lame and lazy, to those with tics and those who are maimed or crazy, I share these memories in the hope and belief, that they will give you an understanding of a family practitioner’s life in small town South Africa.

Price R199.00
My Boss The Bully - Human...
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My Boss The Bully - Human...

The journey of Pam is sure to send chills to many working professionals and cause self-introspective uneasiness to any person in a managerial position. My Boss, the Bully, is a must-read for any Human Resources practitioner and leader in business. It is packed with chilling revelations on corporate maladies and how shareholders can be duped when they place the wrong people in leadership positions. The book also provides important lessons on how to survive bully bosses and create the best possible Human Resources environment.

Price R170.00
No Taming of the Enthusiast
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No Taming of the Enthusiast

From skylarking at school to a professorship at the best university in Africa. It's all here in this collection of loosely related memoir-essays: all twists in the winding road the author travelled to become a female computer science professor at the University of cape Town. Born and schooled in the Netherlands, Ms Keet didn't stay home for long. Her winding road had a distinctly international flavour. She has worked and studied in Ireland and Italy, and briefly in Peru and Cuba, before finding her way back to South Africa. The author herself says of her essays: ' They offer a peek into a kitchen where underway is making of a woman into an academic scientist when the yeast has been gender-spiked against her chances of rising.'

Price R240.00
ORPHANED, WITH LIVING PARENTS
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ORPHANED, WITH LIVING PARENTS

Many thousands of South African children are brought up by their grandmothers. This is one of the many manifestations of an unstable and distraught society, where the mother to child bond is too often broken, causing pain and a deep-seated sense of loss to both parties. Each Gogo-raised child’s story is different, but the general theme is the same: it deals with abandonment, with only qualified acceptance, but most of all with the simple absence of a real mother presence. The title of Vanessa Neo Mathope’s book – Orphaned, with Living Parents – tells it all. A monstrous imbalance has occurred, and the consequences run deep.

Price R260.00
Private Excavations -...
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Private Excavations -...

Private Excavations is superb travel writing with a profoundly important purpose. It is also a very necessary book for our rapidly polarising global village.

A journey through snow-clad northern Europe uncovers the fateful impact of a ‘one-truth’ vision of the world. By using as a platform important Scandinavians (writer August Strindberg and Advard Munch) the author explores absolutist thinking in its various religious and political guises. His fluid style blends evocative description with philosophy and history (especially art history) and persuades the reader towards a more humane understanding of existence. The extremists deny this point of view, content instead to seek salvation from an unacceptable world via their one-truth dogmas.

Price R130.00
So Send I You - Finding the...
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So Send I You - Finding the...

This book charts a remarkable woman’s engagement with deep rural communities in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province – and in particular with the high numbers of brain-damaged children left stranded in huts all over the foothills of the great Drakensberg Mountains.

Price R180.00
Taj Mahal And Tea
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Taj Mahal And Tea

THE GREATEST STORY IS THE ADVENTURE YOU DIDN’T EXPECT

A funny, heartfelt adventure of selfies, surprises and self-realisation that will inspire and  and delight you. Discover how change can occur at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected ways and how a disciplined, successful, corporate CEO ended up having an uninhibited, life-altering grand adventure in a country of chili and chai.

Experience the light and colour of Diwali and Holi celebrations and marvel at the vibrant history, architecture and culinary delights of India. An enlightening and uplifting celebration of the bonds of friendship and life in all its diversity.

 

Price R210.00
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