Here is a list of all the amazing events you can look forward to at the Franschhoek Literary Festival this year! Because there are so many wonderful events we have decided to split them into 3 blogs (one for each day of the festival).

What’s going on in the ANC?
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: School Hall
Wouldn’t we all like to know? Moeletsi Mbeki and journalist Carol Paton take us behind the scenes, chaired by UCT’s Richard Calland.

Steve Biko
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Christi van der Westhuizen of the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice and Suren Pillay of the Centre for Humanities Research at UWC in discussion with Xolela Mangcu about his recent biography.

A song of Africa
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Council Chambers
Izak Dinesen wrote, “If I have a song of Africa, does Africa have a song of me?” Marguerite Poland (Taken Captive by Birds) and Patricia Glyn (What Dawid Knew) tussle with the question.

How have wars changed over the past century?
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Antony Beevor in conversation with Hamilton Wende.

Thomas Pringle
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Bill Nasson talks to Randolph Vigne about his new biography Thomas Pringle, SA pioneer, poet and abolitionist.

Liberal: fine ideal or dirty word?
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: School Hall
Expect a fiery debate as Tony Leon and Eusebius McKaiser square up to each other again with Dennis Davis in the chair.

Literary prizes
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Church Hall
Michele Magwood explores the substantial pros and sometimes-voiced cons with Kate Mosse, co-founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, formerly the Orange Prize, and prizewinners Tan Twan Eng (The Garden of Evening Mists) and Finuala Dowling.

Digging for the truth
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Congregational Church
Investigative journalism under the spotlight with Jenny Crwys-Williams talking to Jacques Pauw, Julian Rademeyer and Antony Altbeker (Fruit of a Poisoned Tree).

Dis ek, Anna (tweetalig)
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Council Chamber
Helen Naude in conversation with Anchien Troskie.

HHhH
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Hospice Hall
Laurent Binet, whose novel HHhH about the assassination of Heydrich won the Prix Goncourt for a first novel in 2010, in conversation with Tymon Smith.

Poetry in the Screening Room
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: The Screening Room
Joan Hambidge (Lot se vrou) and Isobel Dixon share poems and talk about nurturing new talent, being a critic as well as an artist, and their own poetic craft.

The Great African Society
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: School Hall
Francis Wilson chairs this discussion between Hlumelo Biko, one of our country’s vibrant new voices, and Aubrey Matshiqi.

Anthony Horowitz
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Church Hall
… in conversation with John Maytham.

Feisty women
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Journalist Gaye Davis conducts this quartet of spirited women writers: Pat Fahrenfort (A Spanner in the Works), Melanie Verwoerd and Melinda Ferguson (Hooked and Smacked).

Moscow!Moscow!
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Council Chambers
Christopher Hope who wrote the travel book in conversation with A D Miller.

Child soldiers
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Jamala Safari and Hamilton Wende (Only the Dead) agonise about one of the scourges that ravage our continent, chaired by Ndumiso Ngcobo.

Poetry in the Screening Room
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Three winners of SA’s prestigious Ingrid Jonker prize in conversation. Finuala Dowling (I flying) asks Bev Rycroft (missing) and Megan Hall (Fourth Child) why grief, love and dark wit make the best poems.

To frack or not to frack
Time: 14h00 – 15h00
Venue: School Hall
Karoo resident and contributing editor to Business Day Tim Cohen (A Piece of the Pie) undertakes what is bound to be a fracktious debate between Ivo Vegter (Extreme Environment), environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan and Jonathan Deal of the Treasure Karoo Action Group.

Prisms on the past
Time: 14h00 – 15h00
Venue: Church Hall
Lynda Gilfillan explores the possibilities of historical fiction with Laurent Binet, author of HHhH, and Claire Robertson, author of The Spiral House.

Writing Africa
Time: 14h00 – 15h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Njabulo Ndebele, one of our country’s literary icons, in conversation with Oswald Mtshali
and Mtutuzeli Nyoka.

The Last Afrikaner Leaders
Time: 14h00 – 15h00
Venue: Council Chamber
Author Hermann Giliomee of Stellenboschtalks to broadcaster Mike Wills.

Vrede
Time: 14h00 – 15h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Jo-Anne Richards and Fred de Vries bought a weekend retreat which transformed gradually from utopia to dystopia. It became a strong thread through both their recent works – one fiction, the other non-fiction. Here they tease out their different treatments of a dorp which encapsulates many of South Africa’s issues.

Patricia Glyn…
Time: 14h00 – 15h00
Venue: The Screening Room
…presents her riveting TEDx talk about what she learnt on her journey into the Kalahari with
the late Khomani San leader, Dawid Kruiper, and his family.

11h30-12h30
Concert Schubert II:‘A consolation for our loneliness’
(NGK Church) R90, pay at the door
Christopher Duigan plays solo piano music by Schubert including Four Impromptus, selections from Moments musicaux and Drei Klavierstücke. (70 mins)

15h30
Concert SCHUBERT III: ‘The Trout’
(Café BonBon at La Petite Dauphine) R150, concert only
Schubert’s Trout Quintet for violin, viola, cello, double-bass and piano played by Christopher Duigan (piano) and friends.
Book a table for lunch from 12 noon or join the audience in time for the concert. Tel: Café BonBon 021 876 3936

Here is a list of all the amazing events you can look forward to at the Franschhoek Literary Festival this year! Because there are so many wonderful events we have decided to split them into 3 blogs (one for each day of the festival).

Leadership and Corruption
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: School Hall
Njabulo Ndebele (Fine Lines from the Box), David Lewis of Corruption Watch and A D Miller discuss these crucial issues of our time, chaired by Shaun Johnson of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation.

World War II
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Church Hall
Distinguished war historian Antony Beevor (The Second World War) engages with French academic and novelist Laurent Binet (HHhH), chaired by Professor Bill Nasson of Stellenbosch (South Africa at War 1939-1945).

SOS Africa
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Julian Rademeyer (Killing for Profit), Jacques Pauw (Rat Roads) and Jamala Safari (The Great Agony and Pure Laughter of the Gods) wrestle with the extent of some of our continent’s problems, chaired by Ray Hartley, former editor of the Sunday Times and The Times.

Drug Muled
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Council Chamber
By the time Vanessa Goosen had spent 16 terrible years in a Thai prison, a lot of publishers were after her story – but newbie Melinda Ferguson prevailed.

Literary Lionesses of False Bay
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Ann Donald of Kalk Bay Books, who knows them well, talks to novelists Finuala Dowling (Homemaking for the Down-at-Heart), Diane Awerbuck (Home Remedies) and Claire Robertson (The Spiral House).

Poetry in the Screening Room
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Poets Antjie Krog and Ingrid de Kok in conversation and reading new work.

Alexander McCall Smith
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: School Hall
Michele Magwood engages with this most engaging of authors, polymath creator of The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series and more than a hundred books (and counting) translated into over 45 languages.

Does patriarchy lead to sexual violence?
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Church Hall
… or are submissive or absent mothers also at fault? A crucial debate for our troubled time between Redi Thlabi, Anchien Troskie and Casey B Dolan (An Appetite for Peas), chaired by Eusebius McKaiser (A Bantu in my Bathroom).

Found in translation
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Congregational Church
Editor Lynda Gilfillan asks Afrikaans authors Ingrid Winterbach (The Book of Happenstance/Die boek van toeval en toeverlaat), Eben Venter (Wolf Wolf) and Carel van der Merwe (Shadow /Skaduwee) whether translations do their original versions justice.

Shock/horror
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Council Chamber
Lauren Beukes, winner of the 2012 Arthur C Clarke Award, delves into the underworld of techno-terror with the co-authors of The Mall and The Ward, Sarah Lotz and Louis Greenberg.

Karoo mosaic
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Hospice Hall
Tim Cohen talks to writers whose books give intimate glimpses into Karoo lives: poet and activist Sydda Essop (Karoo Kitchen), poet Isobel Dixon (The Tempest Prognosticator) and Carol Campbell (My Childen Have Faces, about karretjie people).

Poetry in the Screening Room
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: The Screening Room
Oswald Mtshali in conversation with Tessa Dowling about the republication of Sounds of a Cowhide Drum , now with Zulu translations

How to fix South Africa
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: School Hall
This Sunday Times book is a collection of articles written by leading South Africans who suggest solutions. Dennis Davis talks possibilities with Moeletsi Mbeki, Hlumelo Biko and the former editor who commissioned them, Ray Hartley.

Bestsellers
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Church Hall
Bestsellers Kate Mosse (Languedoc Trilogy, of which Labyrinth was the first) and Anthony Horowitz, polymath author of over 35 books as well as many TV and movie scripts, plays and journalism, talk to Jenny Crwys-Williams.

Pulp Fiction
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Enter the exciting world of African graphic novels as Sean O’Toole exchanges notes with enthusiasts Katie Reid, Stacy Hardy and Ashraf Jamal.

Peacocking
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Council Chambers
UCT linguists Rajend Mesthrie and Tessa Dowling rap about South Africa’s rich compost of languages, including township slang.

Favourite Poems
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Four poets – Finuala Dowling (I Flying), Ingrid de Kok (Other Signs), Karen Press, (Slowly, as if) and Danie Marais (In die buitenste ruimte) – present their favourite poems.

New Voices
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Sue Grant-Marshall of Radio Today talks to crime novelist Amanda Coetzee and medical specialist Mtutuzeli Nyoka who has written a first novel, A Hill of Fools.

Ambassadors
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: School Hall
SA’s representatives come from both sides of the political divide. Mike Wills talks diplomacy with Melanie Verwoerd, former ambassador to Ireland (The Verwoerd who Toyi Toyied) and Tony Leon who took on Argentina (The Accidental Ambassador).

What do publishers want?
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Church Hall
Random House Struik MD Steve Connolly quizzes Melinda Ferguson (M F Books, a Jacana imprint with a focus on black women’s stories), Debra Primo (UKZN Press) and American Ron Irwin, a UCT academic who teaches creative writing and doubles as a literary agent

Prodigal Daughters
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Congregational Church
Palesa Morudu talks to Annemarie Wolpe, Gonda Perez and Ruth Carneson about their exiled lives during the Struggle, with editor Lauretta Ngcobo, Barbara Bell and Elizabeth Trew standing by.

Social Issues In Fiction
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Council Chamber
Lauren Beukes talks to Rebecca Davis about her new thriller, The Shining Girls, and using inventive fiction to explore big issues in an engaging way.

Where’s the Chicken?
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Hospice Hall
With a foreword by Mamphela Ramphele, this brief practical book with fresh perspectives on creating a safer society in South Africa is by two academics who know what they’re talking about: John Cartwright and Clifford Shearing. Ndumiso Ngcobo asks the questions.

Poetry in the Screening Room
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: The Screening Room
Then/Now: Michael Cope (Ghaap; Sonnets from the Northern Cape) in an illustrated multimedia conversation with Bev Rycroft (missing).

Don’t touch me on my dog
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: School Hall
How do we grow beyond the racism that still blights our country? Francis Wilson probes for answers from political analyst Aubrey Matshiqi, Eusebius McKaiser and Zapiro, the cartoonist who can make us cringe with a few pen strokes.

A sense of place
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Church Hall
Christopher Hope engages with three authors whose recent novels have a strong sense of place: Ken Barris on growing up in PE, Alistair Morgan who sets The Land Within on a former family farm in the Karoo, and Ron Irwin who writes about an obsession with rowing in an American boys’ school.

Researching war and cities
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Antony Beevor in conversation with Vivian Bickford-Smith of UCT.

Critics on critics
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Council Chamber
Sean O’Toole in conversation with Margaret von Klemperer, books editor of the Witness, and Fred de Vries (The Fred de Vries Interviews).

Haunted by waters
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
A treat for trout fishermen: John Maytham talks to Duncan Brown (Are Trout South African?) with doyen Tom Sutcliffe in attendance.

Author to author
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Jo-Anne Richards in conversation with Rachel Zadok.

Patricia Glyn …
Time: 17h30 – 18h30
Venue: The Screening Room
… presents her riveting TEDx talk about what she learnt on her journey into the Kalahari with the late Khomani San leader, Dawid Kruiper, and his family.

10h00 – 15h00
“Live news” sessions (Protea Hotel) (pay at the door)
Editor Martin Welz will chair four activistexperts talking about hot news stories. See poster in the Town Hall during the FLF or www.noseweek.co.za for details.

Concert Schubert I: ‘Withered flowers’ (NGK Church) R90, pay at the door
Pianist Albie van Schalkwyk joins Liesl Stoltz (flute) and Christopher Duigan to play Schubert’s Trockne Blumen for flute and piano and Fantasia in F minor for four hands at one piano. (70 minutes)

Ingrid Winterbach as writer and visual artist (IS Art Gallery)
A conversation between Ingrid and Lize van Robbroeck. Bookings: 021 876 8443. (Free event)

10h00 – 12h00
Flash Memoir Workshop (Double Event)
Learn tools to access the core of your life story – giving equal weight to the facts and the poetry of the matter – with Dawn Garisch.

11h30 – 12h30
Taken Captive by Birds
John Maytham talks to the author of this childhood memoir Marguerite Poland and bird illustrator Craig Ivor, some of whose work will be exhibited.

18h00
Sunday Times Literary Awards Shortlist announcement (Le Coq Restaurant, Huguenot Square) (By invitation only).

18h00
Concert Voices for Africa FREE concert (NGK Church)
A celebratory event featuring some of Cape Town’s most established operatic voices, including Beverley Chiat (soprano) with new talent from Anzwi Omzansi Africa National Singing Competition, a project initiated by London–based baritone Njabulo Madlala. The local Simunye Choir also feature in a selection of traditional songs Everyone welcome. (70 mins)

19h00 for 19h30
Dinner with talk show host and author Jenny Crwys-Williams at Pierneef à La Motte restaurant, R45 Main Road, Franschhoek Valley.
Enjoy dinner with some of the best authors around and Porcupine Ridge wines. Phone Jade Horn on 076 780 6383 or email justjenny@iafrica.com

19h30
Sunday Times dinner at Reuben’s
Join Sunday Times for a literary evening at Reuben’s Restaurant & Bar: Alexander McCall Smith and Kate Mosse in discussion with Michele Magwood. Tickets: R550 each for four courses with a welcome drink of Porcupine Ridge wine. To book, email goodtimes@sundaytimes.co.za

Here is a list of all the amazing events you can look forward to at the Franschhoek Literary Festival this year! Because there are so many wonderful events we have decided to split them into 3 blogs (one for each day of the festival).

Alexander McCall Smith (event for schools and adult fans)
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: New High School Hall
The bestselling author is also an unforgettable speaker. This is the first of two chances to be royally entertained by him with Jenny Crwys-Williams asking the questions.

Science is Cool (event for schools)
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: School Hall
UCT Emeritus Professor George Ellis talks to two young scientists, Ethel Phiri of Stellenbosch and Jeff Murugan of UCT, and Business Day Science and Technology editor Sarah Wild, author of Searching African Skies, about science as an exciting profession.

Paul Geraghty (for 5-10 year olds and anyone with a sense of humour)
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Church Hall
The award winning author of The Hunter and Dinosaurs in Danger will delight and inspire young readers with his exuberant storytelling and illustrations. His picture books encourage children to read, write, draw and think creatively.

Great Gardens of South Africa
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Horticulturist Ida Raimondo discusses their gardening books with Nini Bairnsfather Cloete (Remarkable Gardens of SA), Jane Griffiths (Jane’s Delicious Garden, Delicious Herbs and Delicious Kitchen) and Bernadette le Roux (Roots, Shoots & Leaves).

New voices at the FLF
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Council Chamber
Sue Grant-Marshall chats to Jill Nudelman (Inheriting the Earth), Gareth Crocker (Journey From Darkness) and Liesl Jobson (Ride the Tortoise) about their new books.

Epidemics
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Howard Phillips of the Department of Historical Studies at UCT (Plague, Pox & Pandemics) gets into fascinating medical and social details with Jillian Riley (Shame: Confessions of an aid worker in Africa)

Surprise event
Time: 10h00 – 11h00
Venue: Screening Room
(to be announced)

Rising eighteen
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: New High School Hall
Samantha Page (editor, From Me to Me) joins comedian Nik Rabinowitz (South Africa: Long Walk to a Free Ride), writer Osiame Molefe, author Fiona Snyckers (Team Trinity) and Athambile Masola (contributor to My First Time) to talk about surviving the final years at school.

The Power of Horowitz (event for schools)
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: School Hall
Michele Magwood introduces multi-talented Anthony Horowitz, best known for his Alex Rider series and The Power of Five supernatural thrillers, who will talk about his passion for creating spellbinding stories for devoted young fans and enticing new readers.

Cooking up a Storm
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Church Hall
Irresistible and very different cookbooks with Sydda Essop (Karoo Kitchen), Jane-Anne Hobbs (Scrumptious) and Hilary Biller (Sunday Times Food Weekly Cookbook), chaired by food magazine editor Abigail Donnelly.

Assegais & Commandos
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Congregational Church
Bill Nasson (The War for South Africa) takes a trip into our warlike past with Willem Steenkamp (Assegais, Drums & Dragoons) and Trevor Emslie, publisher of a new Afrikaans translation of Deneys Reitz’s Commando. (In the audience will be Michael Reitz with his grandfather’s Anglo Boer War Mauser).

Storytelling for little ones (free event)
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Council Chamber
Children’s author Dianne Stewart and other storytellers for ages 5-9.

New Voices
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: Hospice Hall
Linda Gilfillan introduces three new writers with a Cape focus: Claire Robertson (The Spiral House), Ashraf Kagee (Khalil’s Journey) and Mark Winkler (An Exceptionally Simple Theory [of Absolutely Everything]).

Ingrid Jonker: A Poet’s Life
Time: 11h30 – 12h30
Venue: The Screening Room
Biographer Petrovna Metelerkamp in conversation with Ingrid’s daughter Simone.

Technology wizards (event for schools)
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: School Hall
Toby Shapshak, editor of Stuff magazine, Marlon Parker, social entrepreneur and founder of community oriented RLabs, and broadcaster Simon Dingle talk about the latest available technology

Dystopia in Science Fiction (event for schools)
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Church Hall
Five top S.F. authors dissect the futures they predict: Sarah Lotz (The Mall) Lauren Beukes (The Shining Girls), Cat Hellisen (When the Sea is Rising Red), Karen Jayes (For the Mercy of Water) and Rachel Zadok (Sister-Sister).

Jane Raphaely Unedited
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Toni Younghusband in conversation with the doyenne of South African magazine editors about her autobiography.

Mampoer Shorts
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Council Chamber
Joining Wits journalism professor Anton Harber to talk about his new initiative publishing longform journalism online are Dutch author Fred de Vries, writer Osiame Molefe and travel writer Justin Fox (The Marginal Safari).

Crime Conversation
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Witness books editor Margaret von Klemperer (Just a Dead Man) talks crimewriting with Amanda Coetzee (Redemption Song), Consuelo Roland (Lady Limbo) and Rahla Xenopolous (Bubbles).

Home From Home
Time: 13h00 – 14h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Rhodes professor of poetry Chris Mann and Julia Skeen present their multi art show.

Surviving Childhood
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: School Hall
This event focuses on the devastation and effects of childhood trauma. Redi Thlabi (Endings & Beginnings) Martinique Stilwell (Thinking up a Hurricane) and Diane Awerbuck (Home Remedies), chaired by Melinda Ferguson.

Trial by twitter
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Church Hall
Tweets are an instantaneous news medium with growing influence on public opinion. Fiona Snyckers quizzes Julian Rademeyer, Sam Wilson and non-tweeting journalist Ann Crotty about the pros and cons.

Carcassonne
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Congregational Church
Novelist Christopher Hope chats to British author and playwright Kate Mosse about their engagement with France and one of its great historical cities.

Three writers walk into a book deal…
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Council Chamber
Sarah Lotz, Paige Nick and Helen Moffett talk about the exciting international publishing deal for their fun and feisty choose-your-own-adventure erotica series “A Girl Walks Into…” and how it’s giving them what all writers crave – the freedom to write full-time.

Eastern Cape blues
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: Hospice Hall
Anchien Troskie (Dis ek, Anna and Die Staat Teen Anna Bruwer), Ken Barris (Life Underwater) and Marguerite Poland (Taken Captive by Birds) in conversation with Jo-Anne Richards (The Imagined Child).

Patricia Glyn …
Time: 14h30 – 15h30
Venue: The Screening Room
… presents her riveting TEDx talk about what she learnt on her journey into the Kalahari with the late Khomani San leader, Dawid Kruiper, and his family.

Fifty Shades of funny
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: School Hall
The combination of Sunday Times columnist Ndumiso Ngcobo and stand-up comedians Marianne Thamm and Nik Rabinowitz will have this audience laughing all the way home.

Fiction editing in South Africa
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Church Hall
On a more serious note, John Linnegar of the Professional Editors’ Group talks to editor Maire Fisher, author/critic Brent Meersman (Reports Before Daybreak) and publishers Fourie Botha (Umuzi) and Colleen Higgs (Modjaji) about the local state of the art.

Writing a path through grief
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Congregational Church
Sean Davison (Before We Said Goodbye, After We Said Goodbye) has been much in the news since his house arrest in New Zealand. Here he talks to Mignonne Breier (Letters to my Son) about the healing process of writing, chaired by Dawn Garisch (Eloquent Body).

Feeding Africa
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Council Chamber
Leonie Joubert discusses her important and timely book The Hungry Season: Feeding Southern Africa’s Cities with sustainable development specialist Michelle Matthews.

Jenny & Jenny
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: Hospice Hall
Jenny Crwys-Williams (Just Jenny) and Jenny Hobbs (Napoleon Bones) – two longstanding friends with a passion for promoting books and reading – talk about their lives, their writing and the nuts and bolts of the FLF.

Poetry in the Screening Room
Time: 16h00 – 17h00
Venue: The Screening Room
Mellow out for the evening with tasters of poetry by Oswald Mtshali (Sounds of a Cowhide Drum), Kerry Hammerton (These are the lies I told you), Gus Ferguson (Holding Pattern) and Justin Fox (The Marginal Safari).

10h00-12h30 (Library)
All About Writing workshop with Jo-Anne Richards & Fred de Vries (Double Session)
A good story-teller can make us care about real-world issues, or about imagined people. Novelist Jo-Anne Richards and non-fiction writer Fred de Vries discuss how to get a story going, maintain the momentum and come to a dramatic climax and a satisfying resolution.

14h30-17h00 (Library)
The Suitcase Under the Bed Seminar (Double Session)
Experienced publishers Alison Lowry and Tracey McDonald give practical advice about publishing for aspiring authors.

14h30-15h30
A D Miller
… in conversation with Ann Donald about his Booker-shortlisted novel Snowdrops.

16h00-17h00
Flat Water Tuesday
John Maytham talks to UCT academic and literary agent Ron Irwin about his new novel.

18h00
FLF Wine Writer’s Prize presentation at Essence
(By invitation only)

19h30
Sunday Times dinner at Reuben’s
Join Sunday Times for a literary evening at Reuben’s Restaurant & Bar: Antony Beevor, Anthony Horowitz and A D Miller in discussion with Tymon Smith. Tickets: R550 each for four courses with a welcome drink of Porcupine Ridge wine. To book, email goodtimes@sundaytimes.co.za

19h30
Concert The Literary Liszt
(NGK Church) R90, pay at the door
Pianist Christopher Duigan plays music with literary connections by Romantic virtuoso Franz Liszt. (70 minutes)

The 2013 Franschhoek Literary Festival takes place 17 – 19 May and this year has it all! Fiction, non-fiction, political debates, poetry, lifestyle books, writing workshops – you name it, they’ve got it covered for book lovers of all ages.

On the fiction side, the sessions range from Precious Ramotswe to a Nazi general; False Bay to Moscow and medieval heretics to dystopian sci-fi. International fiction authors Alexander McCall Smith, Kate Mosse, AD Miller and Laurent Binet will be joined by a slew of local authors including Lauren Beukes, Claire Robertson and Jo-Anne Richards.

In non-fiction there are some hard-hitting sessions on leadership, corruption and the politics of the day,  and there’s also time to discuss technological wizardry and trout fishing. British historian Antony Beevor, former ambassadors Tony Leon and Melanie Verwoerd and radio personalities Redi Thlabi and Eusebius McKaiser join other non-fiction writers to debate the wide range of topics on the programme.

They have also created events for children and teens during the Friday 17 Open Morning for schools: meet bestselling authors Anthony Horowitz and Paul Geraghty, find out why Science is Cool and how to survive those last few years of high school. Tickets for learners to the specially marked school events are available at R20.00.

The full programme can be found at www.flf.co.za.

Tickets are on sale through Webtickets and events are already selling out, so please book promptly to avoid disappointment.

The FLF’s mission to support reading in the valley is made possible with proceeds from ticket sales. Money raised supports the FLF Library Fund, which pays a full-time qualified librarian to work in 5 local school libraries, promoting a love of reading for all in Franschhoek.

Exclusive Books will be setting up our mini store at Franschhoek Literary Festival again this year, so make sure to stop by and visit us! We will also be selling books at each of the events, so you can be sure to get your books signed by all of the amazing authors attending this year.

Our digital ninja will also be in attendance, so keep an eye on our twitter feed for constant live updates on the FLF.

Protea Hotel Franschhoek has offered an amazing special for all of our Fanatics members. Not only do you get a 10% discount on your booking, but you will also get a voucher booklet containing discounts at Franschhoek establishments to the value of R 1000! For bookings and more information about the fabulous Protea Hotel Franschhoek go to www.proteahotels.com. Terms and conditions apply.

Cover to Cover is Fanatics’ brand new communication channel, a reinvention of the Fanatics mailers we have all come to know and love. With this monthly eZine we aim to create a content rich channel that our customers can interact with, adding value to their interactions with Exclusive Books.

In it you will find amazing book reviews, fantastic competitions, special offers and our whole events calendar. We have a whole section dedicated to book clubs where book club members will find a wide selection of books selected especially for them!

Cover to Cover will be available as a web magazine that you can read on your computer and Android device. We will also roll out on iOS (Apple) devices as well as Blackberry 10.

Keep an eye on our social media channels for more news as our apps are rolled out. You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook or visit Exclus1ves.co.za for more info.

In this edition:
Homebru
Mother’s Day 2013
Exclusive Books Recommends
Inferno
Qhubeka
Events

Download Now:
Web
Android
IOS (Coming Soon)
Blackberry (Coming Soon)

1.     Life after Life

Buy a copy and you could win the Kate Atkinson backlist! Entries will be automatically entered when you use your Fanatics card during your purchase.

2.       Americanah
Competition
Win one of five copies of Americanah. Email your name and the name of the author as well as your Fanatics number to Competitions@exclusivebooks.co.za. Two lucky fanatics members will also win the full Adichie collection!

3.       With all my love – Patricia Scanlan
Win one of five copies of With all my love. Email your name and the name of the author as well as your Fanatics number to Competitions@exclusivebooks.co.za.

4.       Total Money Makeover
Competition: Win one of 5 copies of The Total Money Makeover. Email your name and contact details to competitions@exclusivebooks.co.za

Exclusive Books recently celebrated the launch of Drug Muled by Joanne Joseph at our Hyde Park store. The event was attended by both the author (Joanne Joseph) and the subject of her book, former Miss SA Finalist Vanessa Goosen.

Vanessa Goosen was young and excited at starting a successful new career when she was accidentally and unknowingly caught up in the world of drug trafficking. Pregnant, alone and stranded in Thailand (a country known for it’s strict and often extreme non-tolerance policies) she faced the ultimate penalty for a crime she did not know she had committed – death.

Eventually her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and then after many royal pardons she was released after 16 and a half years. Vanessa is one of many women who have been trapped in the notorious Lard Yao prison after being found in possession of drugs she wasn’t even aware she was carrying.

Her story is one of loss, depression, suffering and the long hard struggle to reclaim herself and fight to keep strong under the terrible circumstances she had to suffer for so many years.

Below are some images of the fantastic launch held at our Hyde Park store:

You can click on this link to hear an interview with Vanessa this morning on Jacaranda FM.

You can also see Vanessa tonight (Tuesday 07 May) at our Brooklyn branch for another launch of Drug Muled.

Love hurts. There is nothing as painful as heartbreak. But in order to learn to love again you must learn to trust again. When a mysterious young woman named Katie appears in the small town of Southport, her sudden arrival raises questions about her past. Beautiful yet unassuming, Katie is determined to avoid forming personal ties until a series of events draws her into two reluctant relationships. Despite her reservations, Katie slowly begins to let down her guard, putting down roots in the close-knit community. But even as Katie starts to fall in love, she struggles with the dark secret that still haunts her …

Win with Exclus1ves, Penguin Publishers and Nu-Metro cinemas! 

We’re giving away 10 copies of Safe Haven and 5 double tickets! To enter all you have do is name your favourite Nicholas Sparks novel in the comments thread below.  There will be ten book winners, and five separate winners of the movie tickets. The tickets will apply to any Nu-Metro cinema. You can enter as many times as you like! Competition closes 10th May 2013, terms and conditions apply.

The Twelve Tribes of Hattie arrived with a great deal of literary street cred: it had been recommended by Oprah, who can still make or break books with just a blog post. It came with a stunning recommendation from Marilynne Robinson, Orange Prize and Pulitzer Prize winner. Comparisons are being made to inimitable Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.

Does Twelve Tribes of Hattie live up to these extraordinary claims? While the Toni Morrison comparisons are not unfounded, I feel this book deserves more than being lumped in the ‘black female writer’ bracket. This book, while touching on race, also deals with everything from family to gender to psychosis, while stopping by to discuss religion as well as music. It is, quite surprisingly, more of a collection of short stories than it is a traditional novel. Through the twelve children of Hattie we discover twelve stories, beginning with the heartbreaking departure of Philadelphia and Jubilee and ending with the salvation of Sala.

Eponymous Hattie is triumphantly drawn, though her life is a wide collection of pain and sacrifice. Called ‘The General’ by her children, she bears the pain of losing her children in every manner, who has a husband who is “the greatest mistake of her life”, who somehow manages to feed and clothe and raise her children, each of which grows into and inherits their share of trouble. Each chapter is a look through a prism at Hattie, and her impact on the lives of her children. She is never far from the foreground, and even if she doesn’t appear in the action, she appears in every chapter. Mathis has drawn a remarkably complex woman that one struggles to like or hate, though her strength is easy enough to love.

The novel asks: how do you prepare your children for a world you know is cruel? Through Hattie the reader explores the burdens of parenting, of growing up in the shadow of a mother’s pain and how even the very best intentions can go horribly awry. Add to this the difficulties of racial tensions and outright hatred in America between 1925 – 1980, of being black and gay, of being black and ill, and the novel is filled with complicated troubles and unsentimental discussion. This isn’t a misery memoir but it is filled with great sadness, as it is also lightened by moments of happiness and growth.

Pick this up because you will weep for Hattie, and all she endures for so little thanks. For all she loses, and for all that her children suffer, and for the outstanding depth and maturity of this debut author’s prose.

It isn’t often that a book comes around and refuses to sit in one neat genre– it just isn’t polite. Usually a book can be allocated its genre within a moment of reading the blurb and glancing at the jacket. But then there’s The Shining Girls, which gleefully refuses to pick a genre box to sit in, and decides that it will timeshare in several. The Shining Girls is part crime thriller, part speculative fiction, part sci-fi. It also makes time to touch on a variety of subjects, including baseball, journalism, women’s resistance movements and the Depression, which is a delicious smorgasbord of ideas that also don’t overcrowd each other.

In brief, violent drifter Harper Curtis is a man in trouble, and stumbles into a house that offers the solution to all of his problems. But the house has a secret, and an exacting price. The house can open onto different times, but if Harper wants to stay in the house, then he must hunt down and cut the fire out of the shining girls, women who are special within their own times. And so begins Harper’s killing spree across decades, which comes to him with ease and terrifying glee. But when he fails to kill Kirby, she turns the hunt back on him with unrelenting determination.

This is not an easy book to read: it deals with suffering, with absolutely brutal violence and the worst that humans can do to each other. Each shining girl is profound in her potential, and each murder is highlighted for its horrific waste of a life. So often are the female victims in crime books delineated as props, just treated as a way to highlight the cleverness of the murderer. And Harper isn’t clever – he’s a disgusting lowlife who is willing to kill for a nice house to live in. Which is why Kirby is so much interesting than most female leads in books these days. She’s smart but not savant-smart, she fights with her mom, makes mistakes and is truly brave. She could be any one of us, because those are the same markers of all the shining girls: they’re all women making the very best of what has been given to them regardless of their circumstances.

My only criticism of this book is that I wish it had been longer. When meeting Beukes at the launch of The Shining Girls, I could tell that there were vast swathes of research that didn’t make it into the book. Granted, its current incarnation keeps it moving briskly and there isn’t a wasted word. It has been beautifully edited (which is becoming a rarity, sadly) and there’s nothing wrong with its current length. I love all the details – the underground abortion group, the Glow Girl, the McCarthy witch-hunts – I just wish there had been time to explore all of them more. Perhaps another hundred pages could have done the trick. I also loved that this was an unabashedly feminist book. I know feminism has become something of a dirty word in publishing, but it is about time that a book about crime actually dealt with the violence perpetuated against women rather than using it as a lazy plot-point. It is especially sad when female writers treat their female victims as disposable – seeing each victim realised in such heart-breaking detail is as important as it is unusual.

Of course, the time travel element adds another delicious layer. Hardcore sci-fi fans will be disappointed that it isn’t more central to the novel, but the time travel allows for an exploration of different decades, in which we see how much (and how little) has changed. While researching the novel, Beukes travelled toChicagoand many of the photos she took while she was there appear on the jacket. In fact, the jacket only reveals its secrets as one progresses through the novel, which is a delight in and of itself. Produced by the amazing home-grown Joey Hi-Fi, the jacket’s many elements tie into the shining girls themselves, the time periods the novel crosses and moments that enrich the background of the story.

I say it again: this is sometimes an uncomfortable book to read, as well it should be. Violence should never be passively consumed, nor lightly discussed. The characters, good and evil, leap large from the pages. The settings are consuming, and it is easy to lose yourself in the detail. And if your nightmares reflect your bedtime reading, then keep this for daytime. But you will be hard-pressed to find a book this creative, this interesting and this powerful this year.