Reading Matters (week 032) 5 Aug 2025

Author Tony Park’s book sales over the past 25 years, set mainly in southern Africa, and dealing, on the whole, with wild animals, particularly threatened species, are heading towards 100 000.

His new book, Die by the Sword (Macmillan) plunges into history as it’s  set in the battle of Isandlwana, Zululand, in 1879, as well as in the present with poaching and political land struggles. Park’s characters are vibrant and real as they chase across SA looking for Bonaparte Napoleon’s priceless lost sword. Much of the story is based on true facts. Riveting, as usual.

Belinda Bauer’s The Impossible Thing (Penguin) is also set in fact, about the theft of perfect red eggs laid annually on the Yorkshire coast cliffs by Guillemot seabirds.  Egg dealers in the last century paid a fortune for them and Bauer’s contemporary strand has thieves hard, and dangerously, at work stealing them.  Spellbinding.

In Death in Pretoria (Penguin) Peter Auf der Heyde, writes the untold stories of political activists executed during the apartheid years. Grim and fascinating.

I finish off with children’s book, Dance to your own Beat ( Pan Macmillan) by Refiloe Moahloli, a charming and inspiring story about following your dreams.

Reading Matters with Sue Grant-Marshall