Sturla Jon Jonsson, the fifty-something building superintendent and sometimes poet, has been invited to a poetry festival in Vilnius, Lithuania, appointed, as he sees it, as the official representative of the people of Iceland to the field of poetry. His latest poetry collection, published on the eve of his trip to Vilnius, is about to cause some controversy in his home country, Sturla is publicly accused of having stolen the poems from his long ...
As Ben Fountain sees it, the United States is facing its third existential crisis. The first was the struggle over slavery, culminating in the Civil War. The second was the Great Depression, the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialised world, which brought about the New Deal. The third, is Donald Trump. But how will it end? Taking in America's love affair with firearms, celebrity culture, Russia, Obamacare, Hilla ...
In the run up to the June 8th General Election, Raoul Martinez and his publisher have decided to make the ebook of his book Creating Freedom free to readers in the UK so that the ideas and knowledge contained within it can be as widely disseminated as possible.
We are far less free than we like to think. In Creating Freedom, Raoul Martinez exposes the mechanisms of control that pervade our lives and the myths on which they ...
We are living in a modern world where falsehood regularly seems to overwhelm truth. The ability of billions of people to publish has created a vast amount of unreliable and false news which now competes with and sometimes drowns more established forms of journalism. So where can we look for reliable, verifiable sources of news and information? What does all this mean for democracy? And what will the future hold? Reflecting on his twenty ...
‘Ramaphosa’s election as president will define the near future of South Africa. His election was hailed as a «new dawn» in an explosion of optimism and euphoria about the prospects of this country. But can one man fix years of corruption and lawlessness by himself?’ Political journalist Qaanitah Hunter takes us right into the heart of Cyril Ramaphosa’s rise to the ANC presidency, and the political balancing act which he has had to maintain as p ...
Warning. Smoking kills. It also corrupts law-enforcement officials and eviscerates state institutions. It devours politicians, professionals, businesspeople and ordinary workers in the chase for big bucks and the battle for a slice of an ever-shrinking cigarette market. Join one of South Africa’s former tax sleuths Johann van Loggerenberg in a wild ride through the double-dealing world of tobacco’s colourful characters and ruthless corporates. M ...
‘I always tried to be cheerful when I saw my mother. I never told her that Frances was sad and weepy and wouldn’t eat, and that Keith was clingy and woke me several times a night, or that Pat was withdrawn and hard to approach.’ Activists Rusty and Hilda Bernstein were arrested with many other South Africans following the 1960 State of Emergency and held for three months without trial. Toni, their eldest, at sixteen was left to look after her th ...
Dis 1984. PW Botha is desperaat. As Nelson Mandela in die tronk sterf, gaan die land ontplof. Mandela, Prisonier 913, weet dat 'n vryheidstryd se uitkoms afhang van of daar met «die vyand» gepraat word. Kobie Coetsee, minister van justisie, weet dat 913, amptelik 'n gevaarlike gevangene, 'n belangrike leier is wat dringend vrygelaat moet word. In opdrag van Botha begin die enigmatiese Coetsee in die geheim met Mandela praat, die e ...
