Reviewed for New York Journal of Books by Stevie Godson AS NEWSROOMS lie bleeding, victims of both technology and budget-slashing corporatisation, Amy Rowland’s debut novel could hardly have come at a more appropriate time. Set in fictional New York daily newspaper The Record, which is battling both, it’s a cautionary tale of embeddedness and exclusion–the decommissioning of […]

  I NEVER met Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, but I was at one of the special moments of his remarkable life, and he gave me a treasured moment in mine. I was lucky enough to have an almost front-row seat at his inauguration in 1994 – next to South African singing star Miriam Makeba, whose career […]

July 18, 1918 – December 5, 2013 “A great tree has fallen ….”   (Xhosa praise singer and teacher Xolile Madolo)

by Geoff Berner Reviewed for New York Journal of Books by Stevie Godson Think the music business is sleazy? If you do,  Geoff Berner’s Festival Man won’t change your mind. Think it’s glamorous? Think again. There are, of course, degrees of sleaze within the business and the “festival man” of the title, maverick Canadian music manager […]

A TANTALISING invitation plopped into my e-mail inbox this week which, sadly, I’ve had to turn down. It was for a signing in Johannesburg by author Ivan Vladislavic who would, said the e-mail, be reading from his latest book, A Labour of Moles. Vladislavic, one of my all-time favourite authors, is a former old-school newspaper […]

… by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson and James Harkin Reviewed for New York Journal of Books by Stevie Godson 1,227 Quite Interesting Facts to Blow Your Socks Off is a book reviewer’s nightmare. With no real  structure, apart from an index “to help you find your favourite bits”, it’s just a string of odd information […]

… by James Salter Reviewed for NewYork Journal of Books by Stevie Godson “Literary type, recovering from the trauma of war, pursues true love, revenge, and an accidental career in publishing.” Of course, James Salter’s facility with words and stories ensures nothing is ever that pedestrian. In his care, the dust of the mundane is wiped […]

Confusing or downright clever? Let’s hope this sign in a northern California town doesn’t have too many motorists scratching their heads or it may well cause more accidents than it prevents!

ACCORDING to one of my more forceful teachers, we should never put off until tomorrow what can be done today. Being a bit of a goody-two-shoes, and in awe of my teachers, I assumed he knew what he was talking about. Turns out this particular cliché was wrong. In fact, because of that particular teacher’s insistence, […]