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In this episode,  author Amy Heydenrych chats with author scriptwriter and script editor Pamala Power about her latest book - My Year of Not Getting Shit Faced. 

The title says it all – this is an honest, fun and humorous look at a grown woman’s love-hate relationship with alcohol. In My Year of Not Getting Sh*tfaced, Pam takes a hard look at her drinking habit and realises that although she does not need to find an AA group immediately, she might be a serial binge drinker and needs to take back control.

Set against the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic that pushed most of us to the limits. Pam and her family are no exception, they face several challenges including financial woes and uncertainty about the future of SA.

While other sober curious books are often dry and portray sobriety as the only answer, Pam finds a sweet spot between total sobriety and binge drinking - moderation.

Through her, we experience all the frustration, the discomfort of the withdrawals and the reaction from friends and family to her decision to go dry. With the alcohol bans in South Africa and the national outrage that followed, Pam’s experiences are very relatable and coloured by her cheeky larger-than-life personality.

About Pamela
Pam is a television scriptwriter and script editor who has worked on the television shows Top Billing, Generations, Rockville and Uzalo, and is currently the script editor at Muvhango. She has two children and one husband and lives in Johannesburg.

In this episode of Pagecast, critic and football fan Dave Gorin interviews co-authors of Red on Red, Phil McNulty and Jim White.

The untold story of the most contested fixture in world football

Liverpool and Manchester. Two gloriously independent-minded, eclectic, culturally vibrant places. Yet the inhabitants dislike each other with a passion that is visceral. It is a divide that spans generations across class, gender and ethnicity. And it has grown over the years, largely driven by one thing: football.

The dark, malignant loathing shared by the followers of Liverpool and Manchester United has seeped into every aspect of life in the two cities. Football is not a barometer of disdain, as it is in places like Glasgow or Istanbul or Moscow. In northwest England, it is the engine of animosity.

How did it come to this? Why did things turn so nasty? And what does it say about the two cities in which the clubs are based?

Written by a Scouser and a Manc in a rare collaboration, Red on Red addresses the divide by talking to those involved in ten seminal football matches. It speaks to the characters who patrolled and provoked the rivalry: Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Gary Neville, among many others. Also questioned are the fans, the administrators, the referees, the police, and politicians. And through each legendary game, its authors tell the full story of the most extraordinary division not just in football, but in modern Britain.

This is Red on Red, a rivalry like no other.

Thanks for clicking play on Pagecast, a book-centred podcast series brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers.

In this episode, Highly qualified and experienced Information specialist and Historian Graham Dominy chats with respected historian and author John Laband regarding his latest book The Boer Invasion of the Zulu Kingdom.

This invasion in 1837, of the Zulu kingdom by Boers migrating from the British Cape Colony, and the massacres, battles and civil war that ensued as the Zulu resisted the settlers was a critical moment in South African history.

Changing perceptions in a post-colonial world requires the reassessment of wars of colonial aggression, but there is no book in English that engages with the war between the Boers and Zulu in its entire context or takes the Zulu evidence into proper account.

This work attempts to do so.

Enjoy the episode!

In this episode, Pagecast co-producer Nicola Bruns interviews Bobby Palmer, author of Isaac and the Egg!

Isaac and the Egg, is "a story about love, friendship and baked beans", a parable about learning to live again. A story of a broken man's transformative journey into the woods.

A young man walks into the woods on the worst morning of his life and finds something there that will change everything. It's a tale that might seem familiar. But how it speaks to you will depend on how you've lived until now. Sometimes, to get out of the woods, you have to go into them. Isaac and the Egg is one of the most hopeful, honest and wildly imaginative novels you will ever read.

About Bobby Palmer
Bobby is a freelance journalist who writes for publications including Time Out, GQ, Men's Health and Cosmopolitan. Isaac and the Egg is his debut novel.

Thanks for clicking play on Pagecast, a book-centred podcast series brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers.

In this episode, Avid runner, school teacher and MC Sean Robson chats with co-author and long-time running coach Eric Orton about Born to Run 2 - The Ultimate Training Guide.

This book teaches every runner, new or experienced, how to master humankind's first true superpower and tap into hidden reserves of strength and stamina. With chapters dedicated to the Free Seven - Food, Fitness, Form, Focus, Footwear, Fun and Family - we learn exactly how to change our biomechanics, clean up our diets, heal our injuries, adapt to healthier footwear, and prepare for our dream challenge.

Enjoy the episode!

CapeTalk's Pippa Hudson interviews Cariad Lloyd regarding her book 'You Are Not Alone'.

Inspired by her award-winning podcast, Griefcast; You Are Not Alone is Cariad Lloyd's frank, funny and compassionate exploration of grief.

When Cariad Lloyd lost her father at the age of fifteen, people didn't talk about death. Years later, when she created Griefcast, it started a conversation that people didn't realise they needed until it was there about one of the most significant events in a person's life: its end.

In You Are Not Alone, Cariad shares all that she has learned from Griefcast. She reflects on her own grief, the grief of others, and the psychology and science behind how our society deals with death and loss. Funeral thoughts, therapy, coping with anniversaries, bad friends, good friends, birthdays, weddings, missing them, not missing them - this is grief in all its sad, surprising, awkward, tender and sometimes funny forms.

You Are Not Alone is a road map for all of us: for anybody who has ever felt lost in grief, who would like to help someone they know through theirs, or who just wants to understand life a little better.

About Pippa Hudson

Pippa Hudson hosts the lunchtime show on radio station Cape Talk, which includes a mix of news and lifestyle content, from food, travel and parenting advice to health, legal, environmental and consumer content.

As avid reader, Hudson loves inviting authors to join her in the daily feature profile slot ‘On the Couch’ and in her weekly Book Club segment.

The show was a winner in 2019 of a Titanium Award for Best Health Media Coverage, and a Diageo Award. In 2020 Hudson was the recipient of the Petco media award for coverage of recycling, waste management and environmental issues. Her show has also been a finalist in the Best Daytime Show category at the annual Radio Awards, for the last 4 consecutive years (2018-2021 inclusive).