By Jeremy Maggs
Written in an engaging and self-deprecating style, this book is an unexpectedly funny and candid, behind-the-scenes account of what was unfolding in those newsrooms as the stories broke, peppered with anecdotes around those involved in making those stories happen around those involved in making those stories happen.
My Final Answer, the title is a clear nod to the catchphrase ‘That’s my final answer’ from the hugely successful television show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? – which Maggs hosted on local television from 1999 to 2005.
Written in a self-deprecating style, My Final Answer is incredibly candid and witty. Despite the titular reference to the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Maggs spends relatively little time discussing the show in his book and instead writes about the many other moments that have shaped his life and career.
Becoming a hardcore journalist
Born in 1961, Maggs described his upbringing during apartheid as a ‘privileged, white, middle-class, suburban existence in northern Johannesburg’. His father always used to bring The Star home. It was a very sanitised version of what was happening in South Africa at the time.
From a young age Maggs was drawn to radio and listened to Springbok Radio religiously. After 30 years of working in different media, radio will always be his favourite medium.
Like many in the media, Maggs fell into a career in journalism. He said he was ‘never supposed to go into journalism’ because his father was set on him pursuing a career at Nedbank.
He mentions a few incidents where his mathematical errors have landed him in sticky situations; one being his mistake in tallying matric results while working as a reporter for the then Eastern Province Herald.
After incorrectly calculating the results of Grey High School and Theodor Herzl on the front page of the paper, Maggs described how his editor at the time had thrown a calculator at him on his return to the newsroom the following day.
“I was then made to offer restitution and I had to answer the phone for the rest of the day to angry parents, apologising that I had got it wrong.”
– Jeremy Maggs.
In My Final Answer, Maggs describes how he never intended to go into the ‘quiz business at all’ and considered himself to be a hardcore journalist. But he had always been a bit of a trivia buff, and was in the Eagles Quiz team in primary school and led his ‘team of nerds to a glorious victory’ where they defeated Hawks House by a single point.
About the author
Jeremy Maggs has been a journalist and a television and radio presenter for over 30 years, with a front-row seat to major news events in the run-up to and during the birth of South Africa’s democracy and beyond.
He has worked with some of the country’s most respected journalists, interviewed many famous people from around the world, and been at the forefront of developments as the craft morphed into a social media hydra. From Nelson Mandela’s release from prison to his death in 2013, and throughout the many political and news events that have gripped South Africans, Jeremy has been in the thick of the newsrooms that covered the stories.
- Publisher | Pan Macmillan South Africa |
- ISBN | 9781 77010 776 2 |
- Recommended Retail Price | R310.00 |
- CLASSIFICATION | Journalism, Memoir |
