Layout Table~~~~4802~4802~~

General~Southern Africa~~~4802~4803~~

Rugby Stories from the Platteland - Graham Jooste~The heart and spirit of rugby described in Graham’s book is still evident today, but the way the game was played - on a Saturday afternoon, on a dusty field, after a long day ploughing - is not. Somehow all this became overshadowed by the glamour of large clubs and competitions, fuelled by modern technology and communication. Graham tells the stories, that will have you in stitches, of those recently arrived for work in a strange town on the platteland who, to be accepted by the community, had to play rugby. From labourers and mechanics to clerks and farmers, these are their stories and each one is unique.
ISBN 0958489017, Paperback. 178 x 110mm, 200pp~ISBN 0-9584890-1-7
Paperback: 178 x 110mm
200pp

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The heart and spirit of rugby described in Graham’s book is still evident today, but the way the game was played - on a Saturday afternoon, on a dusty field, after a long day ploughing - is not. Somehow all this became overshadowed by the glamour of large clubs and competitions, fuelled by modern technology and communication.

In this book Graham tells the stories, some dating back 100 years, of those recently arrived for work in a strange town on the platteland who, to be accepted by the community, had to play rugby. From labourers and mechanics to clerks and farmers, these are their stories and each one is unique. From the Northern Cape and Luderitz, down the west coast, into the Eastern Cape and through the Free State and Mpumalanga, Graham has recorded stories, as told to him, that will have you in stitches.

Graham’s style of writing is reminiscent of campfire (or perhaps braais and boerewors) storytelling, the humour lying in all the deviations and asides the story makes along the way.

Graham Jooste, born in Greylingstad, lives in Johannesburg and considers himself semi-retired. Graham is passionate about both history and sport and has written four other books: Innocent Blood (2002), So Het Hulle Gesterf (1998), Rugby Trivia (1995) and South African Rugby Teams: 1949 -1995 (1995). Graham was awarded the Lewis Memorial Shield for Sportsmanship at the South African Nautical College. He played first-league rugby, cricket and bowls and was president of the Old Selbornians Cricket Club in East London and of the Pirate Rugby Club.~Rugby Stories from the Platteland|ISBN 0958489017|~4802~11096~~

The Art of the South African Insult - Sarah Britten~South African insults on everything - from apartheid to Zuma - by everyone from J. M. Coetzee to Daily Sun readers. Michael Herzfeld has argued in his study of Greek villagers that humour emanates from what we are most embarrassed about-not from conventional sources of national pride. This is the first time that South African humour has been explored in this way. This book incorporates a wide range of opinion, from comedians, literary heavyweights, serious political commentators, satirists, sports writers to the kind of people generally not taken seriously, like the ANC Youth League and You readers. South Africans of all people need a good laugh. It is healthy both psychologically and physiologically to laugh at ourselves. At its core, this book is about democracy, or the democratic spirit-because one of the truest tests of democracy is the tolerance of invective and nastiness. So, while the book sets out to entertain, there is also a serious intent.

"I have tried to be as even-handed as possible in the targets of the humour so that everyone has an equal opportunity to be offended," says the author.
ISBN 1-920143-05-X, Nov 2006. Paperback, 320pp~30 Degrees South Publishing
ISBN 1-920143-05-X, Nov 2006.
Paperback, 320pp

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Sarah Britten

Sarah Britten has been described by Barry Ronge as "Hitler with tits". Her first piece of comic reportage, on the wonders of kugels and buying a Matric dance dress in Sandton City, appeared in Style magazine in 1991 when she was 17. She has won Sanlam Prizes for Youth Literature for The Worst Year of My Life-So Far (2000) and The Martin Tudhope Show (2002).

She wrote her Master's research report on South African humour (with a focus on Madam & Eve) and has a doctorate in Applied English Language Studies, the title of her thesis being 'One nation, one beer: the mythology of the new South Africa in advertising'. Her area of academic interest relates to national identity and comedy, and the concept of 'National Intimacy', as defined by the anthropologist Michael Herzfeld.

The good citizens of Mooinooi once tried to send her death threats after she quoted a man who described them as being like ropes-thick, hairy and twisted - but they couldn't find her number in the phone book. David Bullard's fans, who resemble a pack of escaped Labradors gone bad after a week without Bob Martins and Eukanuba, were mightily offended when she pointed out a punctuation error in one of his articles. She already has an active 'hate club' of ex-pat whingers in Perth, Australia.

Sarah enjoys birdwatching, wildlife, painting with lipstick (and pastels). She plays the piano, her favourite composer is Bach and she plans to write a fugue in four parts based on the Nokia ring tone. She can also do a mean Australian accent for anyone who asks.~The Art of the South African Insult - Sarah Britten|ISBN 192014305X|~4802~11458~South African insults, Sarah Britten~

Wide Boy: The true story of a Jo'burg spiv - Montague Bentley~On the streets of Bez Valley , South Africa, Tony grew up hard and he grew up fast. In the cosmopolitan working-class suburbs of Johannesburg, he mixed with people of all kinds and backgrounds. His first rite of passage is to subdue the ruthless bunch of Afrikaans school bullies. Learning tactics from his Uncle Mick, a professional wrestler who wears a large Star of David on his back to incite the anti-Jewish crowds of the East Rand, Tony starts on his life-journey of opportunism, petty crime, street-fighting and questionable business practices, driven always by his never-ending quest "to make money - lots of it". Subtle, brutal, poignant, outrageous, hilarious, Wide Boy will take the reader directly into the balmy streets of a summer day in 1946 Bez Valley; to the street-brawls of the 1950s' Hillbrow and Yeoville; to the post-war euphoric boom days of Southern Rhodesia, the ensuing bush war, sanctions-busting and, finally, to return full-circle to the sometimes murky otherworld of 'big business' in Johannesburg.
ISBN 0958489076, Softback.: 210 x 148mm, 200pp~ISBN 0958489076
Softback: 210 x 148mm
200pp

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Wide Boy - the true-ish story of a Jo'burg spiv

'Wide boy' (dated Brit inflam derog) person who is shrewd, unscrupulous and often dishonest, esp in business.

On the streets of Bez Valley Tony grew up hard and he grew up fast. In the cosmopolitan working-class suburbs of Johannesburg, he mixed with, and mixed it with, Jews, Greeks, Italians, Lebanese, blacks, Afrikaners and occasionally Anglo-Saxons. His first rite of passage is to subdue the ruthless Agnee gang, a bunch of Afrikaans school bullies. Learning tactics from his Uncle Mick, a professional wrestler who wears a large Star of David on his back to incite the anti-Jewish crowds of the East Rand, Tony starts on his life-journey of opportunism, petty crime, street-fighting and questionable business practices, driven always by his never-ending quest "to make money - lots of it." Subtle, brutal, poignant, outrageous, hilarious, Wide Boy will take the reader directly into the balmy streets of a summer day in 1946 Bez Valley; to the street-brawls of the 1950s' Hillbrow and Yeoville; to the post-war euphoric boom days of Southern Rhodesia, the ensuing bush war, sanctions-busting and, finally, to return full-circle to the sometimes murky otherworld of 'big business' in Johannesburg.


Montague Bentley was born in Boksburg North in 1932. Aged two, his parents moved to Bez Valley. He grew up in the Johannesburg of the '30s and '40s before moving to Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia in his early twenties. He returned to South Africa in the '80s. He is retired and lives in Johannesburg with his third wife. (His second wife was rumoured to have had an affair with Al Capone's nephew in New York.) He has never bought a book in his life and Wide Boy is his first book, written or bought. He denies that Wide Boy is in any way autobiographical - but then he would, wouldn't he?~Wide Boy|ISBN 0958489076|~4802~11094~~