If ever a book needed to be a biography rather than an auto-biography, it is Simon Mann’s “Cry Havoc.” What could have become, in the hands of a writer, a rather exciting derring-do, gung-ho type of book about white mercenaries trying to stage a coup in Africa is, instead, a …
What I want to know is, how did Mr. Parker get away with writing such an utterly gripping, but desperately naughty book as this ? How is he not being hauled up for libel or slander or whatever it is that famous people do, when they are publicly described as …
Any book that has the expression “a rattling good read” quoted on its cover sounds ideal for holiday reading, and indeed, this big fat first novel, published in 2003, was a nicely satisfying pick for a rainy European holiday. I have a pronounced weakness for any book about South Africa …
“People like Ourselves” by the South African novelist Pamela Jooste is both engaging, but also ever so slightly disappointing at the end. Perhaps it’s because I lived in Johannesburg for several very happy years, in a gated community that is featured in the novel, that I felt an instant connection …
