Tag: history

The Spell is an ambitious and provocative work of intellectual history that seeks nothing less than to illuminate the narrative architecture through which Western civilisation has made sense of itself, and the world at large.

The Nazis may have lost the battle. But the war is just beginning. Summer, 2025. A US senator burns to death in his Washington townhouse. Masked gunmen massacre supporters during a football match in Berlin. Meanwhile, an old man is murdered while he sleeps in the dementia ward of a German hospital. These three seemingly unconnected events mark the first steps in a terrifying countdown to apocalypse.

An inside story of asbestos, death, and the fight for justice by thousands of South Africans unfolds in this account of their struggle against a multinational mining corporation that refused to accept responsibility. For nearly 90 years, a British company called Cape employed local labour to mine and mill asbestos in South Africa.

Just before she dies, the writer’s mother leaves her with a difficult secret. She also leaves her with an urge to retrieve the past. After years of trawling through family archives, the writer realises how difficult, if not impossible, that task is. However, during this process, she uncovers something unexpected.

The Bam family hailed from Goqwana, near Tsolo, in the Transkei region of South Africa's Eastern Cape. This book focuses on six siblings, their ancestors and particularly Fikile and Brigalia Bam. Notably, Fikile and Brigalia emerged as prominent public figures in their respective spheres.

A sweeping story of love, adventure and adversity, The Map of Bones by Kate Mosse is an epic tale of courageous women battling to survive in a hostile land. Olifantshoek, Southern Africa, 1688. When the violent Cape wind blows from the south-east, they say the voices of the unquiet dead can be heard whispering through the deserted valley.

South Africa, 1899 - the smouldering hostility between the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State and the British colonies of the Cape and Natal is about to burst into flame. War is coming and no one can prevent it. Colonel Penrod Ballantyne, hero of Abu Klea and Omdurman, is sent to Mafeking, 'the place of stones', to recruit and train men for the fighting ahead.

What if Shakespeare was a woman? 1581 Emilia Bassano is allowed no voice of her own, but finds a way to bring her work to the stage secretly. Yet by paying a man for the use of his name, she will write her own out of history. His name? William Shakespeare

Never Give Up on Success is the go-to resource for anyone wanting to change their life. We are all the products of our physical environment. Who we are and what we stand for is largely a result of our environment. Human beings are a composition of our genes, social upbringing, culture, traditions, beliefs and values of our society.

Contesting one’s place remains central to confronting the lingering impact of colonisation and apartheid, emerging as it does out of the intermingling of our environments, histories, languages and experiences. In this volume, architects, anthropologists, artists, urban planners, activists and historians examine the ways in which people are rethinking, repurposing and reusing colonial and apartheid architecture and infrastructure.