Archive for the ‘Non-fiction’ Category
by Amanda on Feb 21st, 2012
Lucas Ledwaba recently interviewed Piet Byleveld who, despite his retirement, has been kept busy promoting Hanlie Retief’s book, Byleveld: Dossier of a Serial Sleuth, and even investigating crimes.
Byleveld speaks about becoming the recent subject of headlines when convicted murderer Donovan Moodley applied for a retrial in the South Gauteng High Court in January. During his submission, Moodley accused Byleveld of framing him, something which Bylevled dismisses without a worry.
Says Byleveld, “From the word go, he co-operated with me. He made a full confession, pointed out the firearm he used and where he burnt the clothes. I interviewed other possible suspects and I have no doubt he did it”.
If criminals don’t retire, then why should a good cop? As long as there is crime, and Brigadier Piet Byleveld, 61, is still around, there will be no rest, retirement or not.
Rest is a strange word for Byleveld, the cop who attained legendary status for the detective work that saw him help send notorious serial killers, robbers and murderers to long terms behind bars.
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by Amanda on Feb 17th, 2012
Mike Nicol, author of Payback, Killer Country and Black Heart, was recently interviewed by Michael Sears for the blog Murder is Everywhere, where he answered questions about his latest book, Monkey Business: The Murder of Anni Dewani, which is compiled from news stories and reports on the Anni Dewani murder trial.
Nicol spoke about the structure of the book and how he wanted to experiment with building a non-fiction narrative out of news stories. Sears says that even though the book is a set of quotes, it “flows well and is hard to put down”. Nicol says that this is a testament to the reader’s ability to create linkages and a narrative out of disparate information:
You chose to structure the book as a set of quotes about the case from newspapers and internet reports and comments. What made you choose that format?
Two things, really. The first consideration was journalistic. I wanted to see if one could build a non-fiction narrative out of snippets of news from a variety of sources. When I was thinking about this book, I kept coming back to the point that the narrative already existed on the internet but in such widely dispersed places: websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter. If I could collate material from all these sources could a narrative be constructed? After a bit of experimentation it seemed that it could and on the basis of the first 10000 words Umuzi decided to commission the book.
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by Amanda on Feb 3rd, 2012
Die Leigh Matthews-moord was onlangs weer in die nuus toe Donovan Moodley, wat in 2005 aan Matthews se moord skuldig bevind is, gevra het dat die saak herverhoor word. Die appèl is in die hooggeregshof in Johannesburg geweier.
In Byleveld: Dossier van ‘n baasspeurder vertel Hanlie Retief hoe Moodley deur Byleveld vasgetrek is. Lees in die volgende uittreksel hoe die baasspeurder dit reggekry het:
Piet Byleveld tel die dossier met die foto’s op. Leigh. Sy lê op haar rug. Haar regterarm skuins agtertoe gebuig.
Dit lyk of sy net daar in die veld neergesit is. Hier, tussen twee boompies en ’n miershoop, waar die son van 21 Julie 2004 oor haar geskyn het.
Sy lê nakend op haar rug, oë oop, haar lang hare los, skoon, gesprei in die wintergras. Blond op blond. Hare wat sy ’n dag voor haar dood spesiaal laat mooi maak het vir haar mondigwordingspartytjie.Haar vel lyk soos Italiaanse marmer. ’n Spinnekop het ’n fyn web tussen
haar dye gespin. Veldmuise het aan haar een kuit begin knaag.
“Dit lyk asof sy slaap. Rustig slaap. Asof daar nie vrees in haar is nie, nè?” sê Piet en sy stem is skielik sag.Hy vee met sy vinger oor haar gesig. “Arme Leigh. Sy was net ’n dag lank 21.’
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by Amanda on Jan 30th, 2012
Jenny Crwys-Williams hosted Peter Harris, author and human rights lawyer, on a recent Best of Jenny Crwys-Williams show. Harris spoke about the death of ANC lawyer Bheki Mlangeni, an event which is novelised in Harris’ award-winning book, In a Different Time:
Podcast with Peter Harris:
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by Amanda on Jan 11th, 2012
Read an excerpt from Justin Fox‘s The Marginal Safari: Scouting the Edge of South Africa, in which Fox describes beginning his journey on a rather ominous note, having just learned that his father is ill. Despite the setback of this news, Fox says that the journey ahead is not just an “escape”, but a form of taking responsibility – “like getting married or buying a first home”.
Read the excerpt, courtesy Namibiana Buchdepot:
The foreshore traffic light is red. across the intersection stands the convention centre my father designed. Up the street is his office. Behind the convention centre an elevated freeway feeds out of the city. Beyond that lies the open road and my dream of travelling round the edge of the country Except my father is ill. And it weighs on me. I left my apartment beside the lighthouse a few minutes ago, turned onto Beach Road and drove past trawlers heading west into the murk. A 10000-kilometre, anticlockwise journey around my homeland lies in store. It’s chilly outside and a strong wind is blowing off the Atlantic, a good day to be leaving the Cape of Storms. Restless, anxious about an uneventful slide into my late thirties, hungry for adventure – or colourful change at least – I’ve been craving the road for some time. Cape Town, for me, has grown predictable. I, too, have grown predictable here. Although it is a kind of escape, this journey seems like a form of taking responsibility, like getting married or buying a first home.
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by Amanda on Jan 3rd, 2012
Justin Fox spoke to Bruce Dennill about his book, The Marginal Safari: Scouting The Edge of South Africa, which details his very long trip exploring the fringes of South Africa. Fox says he took the journey at a bad time in his life, when his father was diagnosed with cancer, and thus the tone of the book changed as his journey became not just a trip around the Fatherland, but his “Father’s land”, visiting places he had been with his father. Fox says that his travelling lifestyle has made it difficult to form lasting relationships with people, as most connections are “transient”, though “intense” while they last:
In his latest book, The Marginal Safari: Scouting The Edge Of South Africa, travel write Justin Fox literally takes his readers on a guilt trip.
His father, the architect Revel Fox, had been diagnosed with cancer, but lengthy preparations and scheduling problems meant the trip had to be done then or never.
“Those months became free for me to do a long trip, but at a bad time, with my dad coming towards the end of his life,” Fox admits.
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by Amanda on Dec 23rd, 2011
Anim van Wyk het met die wêreldberoemde fotograaf David Goldblatt gesels ná hy die president se Orde van Ikhamanga (silwer) van die hand gewys het in protes teen die Wetsontwerp op Beskerming van Inligting wat onlangs deur die Parlement aanvaar is. Voorheen het Goldblatt foto’s geneem van Afrikaners, myne en die voormalige tuislande. Deesdae fokus hy op die tema van misdaad, omdat hy meen dat dit ons almal raak:
Dalk trek fotograwe later op hul foto’s, want David Goldblatt herinner aan een van sy beroemde werke.
Sy gesig is meestal strak, sy gelykmatige stem swart-en-wit.
Elke antwoord word tot die noodsaaklike beperk.
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by Amanda on Dec 22nd, 2011
Detective Piet Byleveld no doubt deserves a peaceful retirement after maintaining a 100% success rate solving serial murders during his sleuthing days. He has taken some time off from touring the country promoting his biography Byleveld: Dossier of a Serial Sleuth with author Hanlie Retief.
However, Byleveld told Udo Carelse of 567 Cape Talk that he is in fact only “semi-retired” as he is still working on cold cases at the request of members of the public. Carelse spoke to Byleveld about his ongoing interest in the Leigh Matthews murder:
Piet Byleveld [12:57m]:
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by Amanda on Dec 21st, 2011
Lara Buxbaum reports on the launch of Ivan Vladislavić’s new book, The Loss Library and Other Unfinished Stories, which took place at Boekehuis last week. Buxbaum recalls the words of Wits Professor Michael Titlestad, who remarked on the “metaphorical coincidence” of launching The Loss Library at what was probably the last of Boekehuis’ Saturday Voices series, foreshadowing its imminent closure.
In a conversation with Titlestad, Vladislavić discussed “the creative possibilities of incompletion” and “the archival impulse”, saying that incomplete narratives can be rewarding for the reader:
Ivan Vladislavić was in conversation with Michael Titlestad to launch his latest work, a collection of “unfinished stories”, at Boekehuis on Saturday.
For what was certainly the last event in the Saturday Voices/Saterdagstemme series of 2011 and most probably the final launch event ever, Boekehuis was packed to capacity. Several more people were huddled on the verandah, determined to ignore the ominous signs of an impending rainstorm. The mood was quite forlorn as no doubt everyone in the audience was aware of Boekehuis’s impending closure. I overheard at least two people mention that the gloomy weather was appropriate weather for a wake. However, if this was a wake, then it was a resolutely Irish one!
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by Amanda on Dec 14th, 2011
Justin Fox, author of The Marginal Safari, has spent the past three months traversing South African terrain in a search for what he has dubbed the country’s “Impossible Five” – the Cape leopard, the Riverine rabbit, the White lion, the Aardvark, and the Pangolin. In an article on Getaway blog, Fox describes finding the most elusive of the pack, the Pangolin:
Over the past three months I’ve been searching for the Impossible Five, the five most elusive animals in South Africa. In the end I managed to find three and a half out of five (it’s a long story, for another time). Perhaps the hardest creature to nail was the pangolin. Here’s how we got him …
There is an enormous hunting ranch near Upington called Kalahari Oryx where a young scientist is researching pangolins. A barefoot Darren Pietersen met me in the driveway. I was to spend the coming days with his family at their home (Darren’s father is manager of the ranch).
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Photo courtesy Getaway blog
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