I work with mainstream publishers, indie publishers, corporates and private clients producing high-quality books that are well researched, accurate, informative and beautiful. I write and ghost-write biographies and memoirs, research and write non-fiction, and write fiction.
My first novel, Flipped, was published by Modjaji Press in March 2023. Other selected recent projects are listed on my home page.
In addition to those projects, I have recently edited Jane's Delicious Superfoods for Super Health by Jane Griffiths, Future Tense by Tony Leon, Cop Under Cover: My Life in the Shadows with Drug Lords, Robbers and Smugglers by Johann van Loggerenberg, So, For the Record: Behind the Headlines in an Era of State Capture by Anton Harber, A Wilder Life by Joan Louwrens, Blessed by Bosasa: Inside Gavin Watson's State Capture Cult by Adriaan Basson, A House Divided: The Feud That Took Cape Town to the Brink by Crispian Olver, The Enforcers: Inside Cape Town's Deadly Nightclub Battles by Caryn Dolley and My African Conquest: Cape to Cairo at 80 by Julia Albu (all Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2019, 2020 and 2021).
I edited A Complete History of Global Telecommunications and overwrote Connected: A Brief History of Global Communications by John Tysoe and Alan Knott-Craig and Recover from Burnout: Tools and Tips To Help You Regain and Maintain Your Passion, Productivity and Purpose by Judy Klipin (all Bookstorm, 2019 and 2020).
I project-managed (with Kevin Shenton) and edited The Road through the Grove for Redsky Publishing (2016). The project also involved a great deal of research and rewriting.
I wrote the introductory essay for Harmonia: Sacred Geometry, The Pattern of Existence for the catalogue accompanying Gordon Froud's exhibition of the same name at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg (2018). I researched and wrote the artist's motivation for Amita Makan's Vasant, the catalogue accompanying the exhibition of the same name at Galerie Rosa Turetsky in Geneva (September-October 2016); and I wrote the artist's motivation for Ricky Burnett's Troubled with Goya, the catalogue accompanying the collection of the same name.
Gardening for Birds (Struik Wildlife), which I researched and wrote, was published in 2014.
I co-wrote and self-published Life on a Permanent Wave: Hair-raising Stories from a Shipboard Stylist, a memoir with Richard Wood, for ebooks on amazon; and in paperback via CreateSpace (2013-14).
I wrote a biography of renowned South African artist John Meyer (John Meyer: A Retrospective 1972-2012; Minx Publishers, Cape Town, 2013). This book won first prize in its category, 'Fine Arts', in the 2015 SA Independent Publishers Awards.
My first book was Adventure Holidays in Southern Africa, written for and published by Struik in 1990.
In 1993 I ghost-wrote half the text for Pachyderm Press’s Historic Schools of South Africa (which I also co-published).
I wrote a series of small books, including Sun City, Cape Town, The Waterfront and Wild Animals; a coffee-table book, Wildlife in Action; and three ‘first field guides’ (to spiders, snakes and birds); and I co-authored a fourth ‘first field guide’, to general wildlife.
I also contributed to the Frommer’s Guide to Southern Africa, covering the Zimbabwe and Botswana chapters; and to the 2008 and 2009 editions of the bestselling John Platter South African Wine Guide.
In 2006 I wrote Natalie du Toit’s biography, Tumble-Turn. The book was longlisted for the Alan Paton Award in 2007.
I contributed a fiction piece to the volume Open, published by Oshun Books.
My first novel, Flipped, was published by Modjaji Press in March 2023. Other selected recent projects are listed on my home page.
In addition to those projects, I have recently edited Jane's Delicious Superfoods for Super Health by Jane Griffiths, Future Tense by Tony Leon, Cop Under Cover: My Life in the Shadows with Drug Lords, Robbers and Smugglers by Johann van Loggerenberg, So, For the Record: Behind the Headlines in an Era of State Capture by Anton Harber, A Wilder Life by Joan Louwrens, Blessed by Bosasa: Inside Gavin Watson's State Capture Cult by Adriaan Basson, A House Divided: The Feud That Took Cape Town to the Brink by Crispian Olver, The Enforcers: Inside Cape Town's Deadly Nightclub Battles by Caryn Dolley and My African Conquest: Cape to Cairo at 80 by Julia Albu (all Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2019, 2020 and 2021).
I edited A Complete History of Global Telecommunications and overwrote Connected: A Brief History of Global Communications by John Tysoe and Alan Knott-Craig and Recover from Burnout: Tools and Tips To Help You Regain and Maintain Your Passion, Productivity and Purpose by Judy Klipin (all Bookstorm, 2019 and 2020).
I project-managed (with Kevin Shenton) and edited The Road through the Grove for Redsky Publishing (2016). The project also involved a great deal of research and rewriting.
I wrote the introductory essay for Harmonia: Sacred Geometry, The Pattern of Existence for the catalogue accompanying Gordon Froud's exhibition of the same name at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg (2018). I researched and wrote the artist's motivation for Amita Makan's Vasant, the catalogue accompanying the exhibition of the same name at Galerie Rosa Turetsky in Geneva (September-October 2016); and I wrote the artist's motivation for Ricky Burnett's Troubled with Goya, the catalogue accompanying the collection of the same name.
Gardening for Birds (Struik Wildlife), which I researched and wrote, was published in 2014.
I co-wrote and self-published Life on a Permanent Wave: Hair-raising Stories from a Shipboard Stylist, a memoir with Richard Wood, for ebooks on amazon; and in paperback via CreateSpace (2013-14).
I wrote a biography of renowned South African artist John Meyer (John Meyer: A Retrospective 1972-2012; Minx Publishers, Cape Town, 2013). This book won first prize in its category, 'Fine Arts', in the 2015 SA Independent Publishers Awards.
My first book was Adventure Holidays in Southern Africa, written for and published by Struik in 1990.
In 1993 I ghost-wrote half the text for Pachyderm Press’s Historic Schools of South Africa (which I also co-published).
I wrote a series of small books, including Sun City, Cape Town, The Waterfront and Wild Animals; a coffee-table book, Wildlife in Action; and three ‘first field guides’ (to spiders, snakes and birds); and I co-authored a fourth ‘first field guide’, to general wildlife.
I also contributed to the Frommer’s Guide to Southern Africa, covering the Zimbabwe and Botswana chapters; and to the 2008 and 2009 editions of the bestselling John Platter South African Wine Guide.
In 2006 I wrote Natalie du Toit’s biography, Tumble-Turn. The book was longlisted for the Alan Paton Award in 2007.
I contributed a fiction piece to the volume Open, published by Oshun Books.
An unusual thankyou from a client
Editing a manuscript is half science, half art. It requires both big-picture attention and an obsessive concern with the tiniest details. The need for an excellent grasp of written English goes without saying but what's also required is a vast general knowledge, an ear for dissonance, a sharp eye for what could be misunderstood or misinterpreted, a willingness to fact-check (and fact-check again, and then double-check that fact-check), and (usually) a cheerful acceptance that you'll almost certainly have to go well beyond the extra mile to get it right.
Different editors have different styles, and it's not unusual for an author and editor not to 'click'. Often, this has a lot to do with the author's (understandable) feelings of protectiveness over a manuscript that they've laboured over and given birth to; when they see an editor tear into it, regardless of the good that might result, it can break the author's heart. This can be disappointing for the editor, who often feels that the author has let his/her ego get in the way of what could have been a vastly improved script.
This unusual thankyou 'letter' came from an author whose original manuscript I initially eviscerated; in the weeks and months that followed, I required her to do mountains of additional work - rewriting, fact-checking, chasing down sources, double-checking, more rewriting, etc. Her total absence of ego was remarkable in itself, and matched only by her astonishing capacity for work - she was an editor's dream.
Our months-long collaboration on a very tricky manuscript, and the author's willingness to do whatever it took to get things 100% right, resulted in what I believe was an unusually good book.