PAGECAST

Thanks for clicking play on Pagecast, a book-centred podcast series brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers.

In this episode, author and historian Mphuthumi Ntabeni chats with Sharon Dodua Otoo, regarding her latest book Ada's Realm!

In a small village in West Africa, in what will one day become Ghana, Ada gives birth again, and again the baby does not live.

As she grieves the loss of her child, Portuguese traders become the first white men to arrive in the village, an event that will bear terrible repercussions for Ada and her kin.

Centuries later, Ada will become the mathematical genius Ada Lovelace; Ada, a prisoner forced into prostitution in a Nazi concentration camp; and Ada, a young, pregnant Ghanaian woman with a new British passport who arrives in Berlin in 2019 for a fresh start.

Ada is not one woman but many, and she is all women - she revolves in orbits, looping from one century and from one place to the next.

A true crime classic about Daisy de Melker in ragtime Joburg –a city of murder, mayhem and gold.

In this episode, Nicole Engelbrecht, True Crime Author and Podcaster sits down with Ted Botha to discuss his latest book, Daisy De Melker - Hiding amongst killers in the city of gold.

Ted Botha takes the reader into the underbelly of Johannesburg in the 1920s and 1930s as he traces the fascinating story of the mysterious Daisy de Melker, who was hanged for poisoning her son. Many also believed she poisoned two husbands for their life insurance money.

In the shadow of ever-growing mine dumps, she went about her business quietly and unnoticed–the most unlikely of killers. Even though people close to her kept dying, no one suspected a thing for twenty years. When someone finally spoke up, it led to one of South Africa’s most sensational trials.

De Melker’s story unfolds in tandem with those of colourful Johannesburg characters of the same period such as the Foster Gang, Herman Charles Bosman, the dashing conman Baron von Veltheim and a Bonny-and-Clyde-style couple, Dicky Mallalieu and Gwen Tolputt. Some cross paths with each other and also those of famous writers of era such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sarah Gertrude Millin.

Thanks for clicking play on Pagecast, a book-centred podcast series brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers.

In this episode the wonderful Danielle Weakley, Brand builder, editor and writer is in conversation with Jo Watson, regarding her latest romantic comedy titled What Happens on Vacation...

Two rivals. One holiday and A trip they will never forget.

Watson returns with a hilarious and heartfelt new enemies-to-lovers, forced-proximity rom-com!

It's the book you won't want to go on holiday without!

Enjoy this episode of Pagecast, thanks for tuning in!

About Jo Watson:

Jo Watson is a bestselling author of romantic comedies, including Love to Hate You which has sold over 100,000 copies. She's a two-time Watty Award winner with over 50 million reads on Wattpad and 85,000 followers. Jo is an Adidas addict and a Depeche Mode devotee. She lives in South Africa with her family.

Visit her website www.jowatsonwrites.co.uk for exclusive extras, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @JoWatsonWrites.

In this episode, journalist and author, Andrew Harding interviews Justice Malala about his new book – The Plot to Save South Africa.

Today it seems as if the defeat of apartheid was inevitable, but Chris Hani’s assassination on the Easter Weekend of 1993 nearly tipped the country into all-out war. Now, bestselling Justice Malala tells the story of the week that followed the ANC firebrand’s murder by Janusz Waluś in riveting, cinematic fashion.

In this meticulously researched new book, the reader is taken into the thought processes and consequential actions of the key players – from Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk, the police investigating the murder, dangerous right-wingers like Clive Derby-Lewis, and leaders such as Cyril Ramaphosa, Bantu Holomisa and Tokyo Sexwale. On the 30th anniversary of Hani’s death, this book tells us just how close South Africa came to civil war and how Mandela and De Klerk – despite provocation and despite their own fears, failures and doubts – chose the path of peace.

We hope that you enjoy the episode.

Thanks for clicking play on Pagecast, a book-centred podcast series brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers.

In this episode author and historian Bill Nasson chats with author, and member of parliament, Michael Cardo regarding his comprehensive biography of Harry Oppenheimer.

In the first, full-scale biography of Oppenheimer, based on unrestricted access to his subject’s private papers and extensive interviews with family members and close associates, Michael Cardo eschews both the corporate hype and the political propaganda to produce a vivid, fully-rounded portrait.

He brings to life the places, people, events and relationships that shaped Harry Oppenheimer’s long and rich career at the intersection of business and politics. Cardo also tackles thorny questions of legacy and Oppenheimer’s complicity with the oppressive racial order of the past.

We hope that you enjoy the episode.

Chris Hani’s assassination in 1993 gave rise to one of South Africa’s greatest political questions: if he had survived, what impact would he have had on the ANC government?

On the 30th anniversary of his murder by right-wing fanatics, this updated version of the best-selling Hani: A Life Too Short reevaluates his legacy and traces his life from his childhood in rural Transkei to the crisis in the ANC camps in Angola in the 1980s and the heady dawn of South Africa’s freedom.

Drawing on interviews and the recollections of those who knew him, this vividly written book provides a detailed account of the life of a hero of South Africa’s liberation, a communist party leader and Umkhonto we Sizwe chief of staff, who was both an intellectual and a fighter.

In this episode of Pagecast, CapeTalk presenter and journalist Lester Kiewit chats with Janet and Beauregard regarding this best-seller.

About the authors:

JANET SMITH is a former newspaper editor and the author of Patrice Motsepe. She was also a co-author of The Coming Revolution: Julius Malema and the Fight for Economic Freedom and The Black Consciousness Reader. Award-winning journalist

BEAUREGARD TROMP is the Africa editor of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. He has also worked for the Mail & Guardian and The Star newspaper.

On Monday 20 March 2023, amidst a National Shut Down in South Africa, local author Mphuthumi Ntabeni met up with Simon Sebag Montefiore, in a quiet nook of the Book Lounge in Cape Town, to discuss Simon’s exquisite new book - The World.

The world is a fresh and original history of humanity, unlike any previous world history book: it uses family, the one thing all humans have in common, to tell the story. In his new book, Simon steers us through an interconnected world via palace intrigues, love affairs and family lives, linking grand themes of war, migration, plague, religion, medicine and technology to the people at the heart of the human drama. It features a cast of extraordinary span and diversity.

The World is both a celebration and an indictment that takes the human story, from caves to drones, in a single narrative by a master storyteller.

We hope that you enjoy this episode of Pagecast.

Thanks for clicking play on Pagecast, a book-centred podcast series brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers.

In this episode, Sewela Langeni of Book Circle Capital is in conversation with Lesley Mofokeng, author of The Man Who Shook Mountains

Journalist Lesley Mofokeng investigates the life of his remarkable grandfather, Mongangane Wilfred Mofokeng, a prominent Dutch Reformed Church evangelist who built a thriving community out of the dust of the far North West.

The journey takes him from Joburg’s Marabi-soaked townships of the 1930s to his childhood home of Gelukspan near Lichtenburg and then to the rural Free State and the remote mountain kingdom of Lesotho. In what becomes a spiritual quest, he traces the inspirational footsteps of his ancestors and the legendary King Moshoeshoe.

In the process, Mofokeng proudly claims his heritage and also uncovers a long-lost chapter of South African history and the church of the apartheid regime.

Enjoy the episode!

In this episode,  author Amy Heydenrych chats with author scriptwriter and script editor Pamela Power about her latest book - My Year of Not Getting Sh*tfaced. 

The title says it all – this is an honest, fun and humorous look at a grown woman’s love-hate relationship with alcohol. In My Year of Not Getting Sh*tfaced, Pam takes a hard look at her drinking habit and realises that although she does not need to find an AA group immediately, she might be a serial binge drinker and needs to take back control.

Set against the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic that pushed most of us to the limits. Pam and her family are no exception, they face several challenges including financial woes and uncertainty about the future of SA.

While other sober curious books are often dry and portray sobriety as the only answer, Pam finds a sweet spot between total sobriety and binge drinking - moderation.

Through her, we experience all the frustration, the discomfort of the withdrawals and the reaction from friends and family to her decision to go dry. With the alcohol bans in South Africa and the national outrage that followed, Pam’s experiences are very relatable and coloured by her cheeky larger-than-life personality.

About Pamela

Pam is a television scriptwriter and script editor who has worked on the television shows Top Billing, Generations, Rockville and Uzalo, and is currently the script editor at Muvhango. She has two children and one husband and lives in Johannesburg.

In this episode of Pagecast, critic and football fan Dave Gorin interviews co-authors of Red on Red, Phil McNulty and Jim White.

The untold story of the most contested fixture in world football

Liverpool and Manchester. Two gloriously independent-minded, eclectic, culturally vibrant places. Yet the inhabitants dislike each other with a passion that is visceral. It is a divide that spans generations across class, gender and ethnicity. And it has grown over the years, largely driven by one thing: football.

The dark, malignant loathing shared by the followers of Liverpool and Manchester United has seeped into every aspect of life in the two cities. Football is not a barometer of disdain, as it is in places like Glasgow or Istanbul or Moscow. In northwest England, it is the engine of animosity.

How did it come to this? Why did things turn so nasty? And what does it say about the two cities in which the clubs are based?

Written by a Scouser and a Manc in a rare collaboration, Red on Red addresses the divide by talking to those involved in ten seminal football matches. It speaks to the characters who patrolled and provoked the rivalry: Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Gary Neville, among many others. Also questioned are the fans, the administrators, the referees, the police, and politicians. And through each legendary game, its authors tell the full story of the most extraordinary division not just in football, but in modern Britain.

This is Red on Red, a rivalry like no other.