Stretched out on my sofa, nursing a very painful torn meniscus that has seen me pull out of 2 marathons and one half marathon this winter season, guess what I’m reading? One of my Christmas presents from my sister. ”Fifty places to run before you die.” Talk about rubbing salt …
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 …
