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King Adz is a grown-up kid whose focus is youth culture. He's a Brit by birth whose heart beats Africa - more particularly Mzansi. In his latest book, a memoir or "non-fiction novel" (according to Adz) the reader is swept along two equally entertaining narrative strands, one set in the present day, the other in the past, which mashed together form the story of King Adz's life - the man also known as "Adam Stone" to the authorities. In the present-day we read of Adz's quest to make some sense of modern South Africa. Adz spends as much time as he can hanging out with a selection of interesting, unusual and creative locals, from Jack Parow to Roger Ballen. He also visits the most interesting places - Portuguese restaurants that are well past their sell-by dates, street culture festivals, and small dorps that are off the map (and "off the hook"!). And through all this is the palpable sense that when Adz is in South Africa, he always feels at home. The backbone of the book tells how Adz came to South Africa, with wife and children, and worked in the world of brands, advertising and digital media. We learn how he "accidentally" became a film director, and might also have fallen into bad company. This is a fascinating, funny chance for South Africans to consider ourselves anew through the eyes of an outsider who has forced himself inside.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Journalist and author Luke Alfred, spent one year traveling around South Africa by foot, with an aim to discover the 'real' South Africa. It is a book of stories, not a historical account.

• The darkness that may be felt
• Funga safari
• Big pig at Hog Ranch
• Roping rhinos
• The man-eaters of "Starvo"
• Lake Rudolf
• This is reptile country
• The fate of the pebbleworm
• The truth comes through the strangest door
• Under the mists of the Kenya snow
• On the run.

""Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?" "--Janis Joplin A journalist's intrepid endeavor to sell his used car abroad results in a high-spirited and revealing look at West Africa. ""Look, there's my car, " I say, pointing at my Mercedes in the parking lot. "Where?" a fellow desert traveler asks. "There, that Mercedes, " I say. He looks at me, questioning. "You want to drive that through the Sahara?"" Jeroen van Bergeijk came up with what seemed like a great scheme for making a quick profit: buy a clunker of a car in his native Amsterdam and resell it in the Third World, where a market even for jalopies still thrives. His chariot of choice is a rusted-out 1988 Mercedes 190D with 220,000 kilometers on its odometer; his route will take him from Holland through Morocco, across the Sahara, and into some of the least trodden parts of Africa. "My Mercedes Is Not for Sale "is a rollicking tale of an innocent abroad. The author finds himself facing a driving challenge akin to the Dakar Rally but encounters obstacles never dreamed of by race-car drivers: active minefields, occasional banditry--mostly by the border guards--and a teenage, chain-smoking desert guide with a fondness for Tupac lyrics. Food and water are scarce, sandstorms are frequent, and all he has to patch up his many car breakdowns thousands of miles from civilization is a bar of soap, some duct tape, and a pair of women's nylons. Then there's the coup he survived. "My Mercedes Is Not for Sale" captures more than the adventure--it vividly portrays the impact of globalization on Africa through a surprise-filled journey into its thriving car culture, while asking the question: is the white man's burden really a used car?
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

This collection of stories is packed with the gentle humour and wry wisdom for which the author is known and loved. The reminiscences about his childhood growing up in the Karoo and other tales gleaned from family and friends will have reader guffawing with laughter and nodding in appreciation.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

After more than a decade as a prison guard overseeing Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), Brand, with the assistance of Mail on Sunday Africa correspondent Jones, chronicles the unlikely personal relationship they built.

• Jean Cloux et la vie
• Les carnets de Jean Cloux.