PAGECAST

Welcome to Pagecast, the book-centred podcast series presented by Jonathan Ball Publishers. In this episode, international best-selling South African author Lauren Beukes chats with Sam Beckbessinger and Dale Halvorsen, co-authors of Girls of Little Hope.
Three girls went into the woods. Only two came back, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened. Or did they? Being fifteen is tough – tougher when you live in a boring-ass small town in 1996.
Donna, Rae and Kat keep each other sane with the fervour of teen friendships, zine-making and some amateur sleuthing into the town's most enduring mysteries: a lost gold mine, and why little Ronnie Gaskins burned his parents alive a decade ago. Their hunt will lead them to a hidden cave from which only two of them return alive.
As the police investigate, Rae and Donna will have to return to the cave where they discover a secret so shattering that no-one who encounters it will ever be the same.
SAM BECKBESSINGER is the author of the bestselling Manage Your Money Like a F*cking Grownup Grownup (over 70 000 copies sold). She’s also a cartoon scriptwriter, has published three picture books for young children, and wrote for Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing with Fire on Realm. Sam gets way too excited about gross body fluids and spreadsheets. She lives in London.
DALE HALVORSEN is a writer and internationally award-winning book cover designer for authors like Lauren Beukes and Nnedi Okorafo. He is the co-creator of the Vertigo original horror series Survivors’ Club together with Lauren Beukes and artist Ryan Kelly. It is currently in development as a TV series. Dale lives in Cape Town.

In this episode, CEO of Jonathan Ball Publishers, Eugene Ashton, chats with Author and Historian Charles van Onselen about his new book, Three Wise Monkeys.
In some settings, such as Ireland, contiguous Catholic and Protestant states are often not conducive to good relations or neighbourliness. In colonial and imperial southern Africa, formal inter-state arrangements took place at the expense of a third party – subjected African peoples.
Three Wise Monkeys explores some of the contradictions, silences and oversights, and working misunderstandings that arise when an emerging Anglophone, Protestant, industrial and urbanising state – South Africa – develops side by side with Mozambique – a Lusophone, Catholic, commercial, rural colony.
In three volumes, Charles van Onselen examines the intertwined relations between South Africa and Portugal’s chronically weak east coast colony, as expressed through the migrant labour system, the tourist trade, the rise and fall of LM Radio and the extraordinary tale of the Lourenço Marques Lottery.
These areas constituted zones of cross-cultural, transnational interaction that both states were reluctant to acknowledge formally, choosing instead to ‘see no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil’ for much of the 20th century.
Three Wise Monkeys presents a startling new way of viewing the entangled, often hidden, economic, political and social dynamics that informed the rise of 20th-century South Africa, often at the expense of neighbouring Mozambique.

Welcome to Pagecast, the book-centred podcast series presented by Jonathan Ball Publishers.
In this episode. Tecla Ciolfi, the Founder & Editor of Texx and the City, will be chatting with Coco Mellars, the incredible author of the captivating novel Cleopatra and Frankenstein!
For readers of Modern Lovers and Conversations with Friends, an addictive, humorous, and poignant debut novel about the shock waves caused by one couple's impulsive marriage.
'A tender, devastating and funny exploration of love and friendship and the yearning for self-evisceration. Coco Mellors is an elegant and exciting new voice' PANDORA SYKES, author of How Do We Know We're Doing It Right
New York is slipping from Cleo's grasp. Sure, she's at a different party every other night, but she barely knows anyone. Her student visa is running out, and she doesn't even have money for cigarettes. But then she meets Frank. Twenty years older, Frank's life is full of all the success and excess that Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a green card. She offers him a life imbued with beauty and art-and, hopefully, a reason to cut back on his drinking. He is everything she needs right now.
Cleo and Frank run head-first into a romance that neither of them can quite keep up with. It reshapes their lives and the lives of those around them, whether that's Cleo's best friend struggling to embrace his gender identity in the wake of her marriage, or Frank's financially dependent sister arranging sugar daddy dates after being cut off. Ultimately, this chance meeting between two strangers outside of a New Year's Eve party changes everything, for better or worse.
Cleopatra and Frankenstein is an astounding and painfully relatable debut novel about the spontaneous decisions that shape our entire lives and those imperfect relationships born of unexpectedly perfect evenings.
Coco Mellors was raised in London and New York City. She completed her MFA in Fiction at New York University, where she was a Goldwater Fellow. Cleopatra and Frankenstein has been translated into over ten languages and is being developed for television by Warner Bros. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her husband.

Welcome to Pagecast, the book-centred podcast series presented by Jonathan Ball Publishers. In this episode, Shaun de Waal, News24 Books Editor, interviews South African writer Jonny Steinberg about his latest book, "Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage."
In this captivating book, Steinberg explores the marriage between Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. As Mandela spent years in prison, his love for Winnie grew, portraying her in his letters as an idealized version of his wife, frozen in time like young lovers. However, Winnie, who was his political equal, became increasingly distant from her husband's political beliefs.
Behind Mandela's back, Winnie attempted to orchestrate an armed seizure of power, a path that he feared would lead to an endless war. Jonny Steinberg narrates the compelling story of this extraordinary marriage, delving into its desires, obsessions, and betrayals, while also weaving it into the political tapestry of South African history.
"Winnie and Nelson" is a modern epic that demonstrates how the trauma within a marriage can reverberate throughout an entire nation. It also resembles a Shakespearean drama, intertwining themes of love, commitment, and timeless questions about revolution, such as seeking retribution versus pursuing a negotiated peace.
With powerful and tender emotional insight, Steinberg reveals the extent to which these inseparable leaders would go for each other, as well as the boundaries they set. Ultimately, they understood that their union was not just a marriage, but a struggle to define the policies of anti-apartheid.
Thank you for listening, and enjoy this episode of Pagecast.
About Jonny Steinberg:
Jonny Steinberg is the author of several books about everyday life in the wake of South Africa’s transition to democracy. He is a two-time winner of South Africa’s premier non-fiction prize, the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award, and an inaugural winner of the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes. Until 2020, he was professor of African studies at Oxford University, and he currently teaches part-time at Yale and is visiting professor at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (Wiser).

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.