SOUTH AFRICA AUTHOR · RACE RELATIONS · JOURNALISTS
Donald Woods
I was only eleven at the time.
— from Biko
Most acclaimed
Black And White
This provocative essay examines the work of lyrical and erotic artist Aubrey Beardsley. The inclusion of Beardsley's illustrations alongside the author's textual interpretation aids the appreciation of Beardsley's work. A detailed chronology also supplements the essay. From the Dust Jacket: This study of "the most intensely and electrically erotic artist in the world" is one of Brigid Brophy's most provocative works. Aubrey Beardsley was, above all, a lyrical artist "pounded and buckled" into an ironist, she believes, by the knowledge of his illness and imminent death. An infant prodigy, he retained through the brief years of his adult life the peculiar genius of a precocious child. Beardsley's vision is permanently that of a child lying in bed watching his mother dress for a dinner party. His obsession with the Madonna-and-child image; his fetishist fascination with hair, shoes, and hats, the ambiguous ornamentation with which he decorates his pictures, the languid elongation of the figures denoting inaccessibility-these are characteristic of the perverse quality of infant sexuality. Beardsley's choice of the graphic medium began as an accident of circumstance, the result of lack of time and physical energy, yet black and white became an image for the erosion of his life. His talent is far better understood by interior decorators-who do not blink his eroticism-than by scholars. Among current literature on Aubrey Beardsley, no more succinct and trenchant analysis of his mind and art exists than this brilliant piece by one of today's foremost stylists and critics. The inclusion of illustrations alongside Miss Brophy's textual interpretation aids the appreciation of Beardsley's work. A detailed chronology supplements the essay.
Biko
Steve Biko was an exceptional and inspirational leader, a pivotal figure in South African history. As a leading anti-apartheid activist and thinker, Biko created the Black Consciousness Movement, the grassroots organization which would mobilize a large proportion of the black urban population. His death in policy custody at the age of just 30 robbed South Africa of one of its most gifted leaders. Although the rudimentary facts of his life - and death - are well known, there has until now been no in-depth book on this major political figure and the impact of his life and tragic death. Xolela Mangcu, who knew Biko, provides the first in-depth look at the life of one of the most iconic figures of the anti-apartheid movement, whose legacy is still strongly felt today, both in South Africa, and worldwide in the global struggle for civil rights, today.
Asking for trouble
It was a dark and sexy night...and she was in Trouble. Really! Budding journalist Lottie Santori is dying to escape her overprotective family and experience a little sexual adventure. And her upcoming, out-of-town (thank God!) job, researching scary old Seaton House, offers some very definite possibilities.... Lottie has always had a thing for the tall, dark and mysterious type, and her reluctant host, sexy Simon Lebeaux, looks as if he can give her the thrill of a lifetime. But when she finds herself at the center of several surprising "accidents," Lottie can only wonder if she'll last that long....