Casey B. Dolan began her TV career as a continuity presenter. Thereafter followed the controversial series 37 Honey Street, in which the first-ever lesbian kiss was shown on South African TV. Her acting debut was followed by dramas such as Kelebone, Boomspruit and Backstage. She also presented for Jika Majika, Fresh, 20something and Top Billing. Casey also had a stint on radio in 2000, working on the afternoon drive show for 5fm. She was voted FHM’s Sexiest Woman in South Africa (and the second Sexiest Woman in the World) by South African readers the same year. More recently, Casey has appeared in a number of movies (working with both local and international directors), including Sumuru, directed by Darrell Roodt, No Man’s Gold, Lost Boys: The Thirst, directed by Dario Piana, Skeem and Copposites. Casey achieved Springbok status in Karate

Max du Preez is best known as an investigative journalist, having launched Vrye Weekblad, Special Report on the Truth Commission and Special Assignment. He is also a passionate historian. His documentary film on King Moshoeshoe, The Renaissance King, was screened on the SABC and the History Channel. He is a weekly columnist for several Afrikaans and English-language news¬papers. His books include Pale Native, Of Warriors, Lovers and Prophets, and Oranje Blanje Blues.

Tim Plewman has a diverse and distinguished career as an actor, dancer, humorist, director, writer and producer. He and his wife, Cathy, run a highly successful production company, Plewman Productions, which has produced 18 theatre and over 160 corporate theatre shows and videos. Tim is a proficient voice-over artiste and has taken leading roles in 6 TV series. He is perhaps best known for his one-man show, Defending the Caveman, which won him the Vita Award for Best Comedy Actor in 1998. Tim finally decided to close the show after nine years and 1 544 sold-out performances.

Julian Rademeyer is an award-winning investigative journalist. He has written and worked for many of South Africa’s major newspapers, including City Press, Beeld, the Sunday Times, Pretoria News and The Herald. He has been a stringer for Reuters and a freelance writer for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Associated Press. Until he resigned to write this book, he was chief reporter for Media24 Investigations. In a career spanning close on two decades, he has reported from some of the world’s most troubled countries, including Somalia, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Belarus and Lebanon.

Tim Noakes is the Discovery Health Professor of Exercise and Sports Science at the Universityof Cape Town. He is a lifelong athlete and is rated an A1-scientist by the National Research Foundation. In 2008 he was awarded the Order of Mapungubwe by the president of South Africafor ‘excellent contribution to the field of sport and the science of physical exercise’. His book, Lore of Running, is considered the global ‘bible’ of running. He has been married to Marilyn Anne for 39 years, and they have two children. Tim is the co-founder of the Sports Science Institute of South Africa, along with rugby icon Morné du Plessis.

In Get Me Started self-taught wordsmith, award-winning journalist and roisterous raconteur Sipho Hlongwane plays off the phrase ‘Don’t get me started’ to REALLY challenge youngsters to get themselves riled up over politics, cars, Twitter, racial slurs, religion and people who must go away, all in the name of a better South Africa.

Ivo Vegter is a journalist and columnist who writes for publications such as The Daily Maverick, CAR magazine and ITWeb Brainstorm, and has occasionally reported for the Mail & Guardian, The Times and various other mainstream publications. Born in Holland, he was raised and educated in South Africa. (c) Andy Hadfield, 2011. Used with permission.

Born, bred and educated in the Eastern Cape; a true son of the Frontier region and of farming stock going back 4 generations, Alan’s interest in history and people began as a young boy roaming the family farm with his companions and friends; wondering about the lives of those who had once lived in the ruins which littered the farm. (Read More)

Yrsa Sigurdardottir began her career as a writer of children‘s fiction. For these works shereceived the Icelandic Children‘s Literature Prizeand the Icelandic IBBY Award. In 2005 Yrsa Sigurdardottir began writing crime ficition.Her series about attorney Thora Gudmundsdottir has reached international bestseller status in addition to winning the Icelandic Crime Ficition Award and being nominated for the Scandinavian Glass Key Award and the American Shamus Award. (Read More)

Having grown up on a farm in the Natal Midlands and holidaying in wilderness areas all my life, my passion for the outdoors and wildlife started at a young age. I started working in the Ecotourism sector in 2000 whilst guiding at the Al Maha Desert Resort in the United Arab Emirates from where I relocated back to South Africa and began guiding at Mala Mala Game Reserve in the Sabi Sand Wildtuin. I also worked for &Beyond (CCAfrica) at Phinda Private Game Reserve as General Manager of Phinda Mountain, Rock and Zuka Lodge. (Read More)

Frank Chikane is currently a Pastor of the Apostolic Faith Mission of SA (AFM) in Naledi,Soweto, the President of the AFM International, and is involved in business, including offering an advisory service to companies that do business on the African continent. He is the Visiting Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Public & Development Management (P&DM) at the University of the Witwatersrand and serves on a number of Boards, including Kagiso Trust, Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, Amarick Mining Resources (Pty) Ltd (a Zimbabwean based company), and Suntrace Africa (Pty) Ltd (an international solar energy company).

Stanley Trollip is half of the writing team of Michael Stanley, the author of the Detective Kubu mystery series set in Botswana. Their third book, DEATH OF THE MANTIS, won the Barry Award in the United States, and was short listed for an Edgar. The fourth Kubu mystery, DEADLY HARVEST, will be released in April 2013. Stanley splits his time between Knysna and Minneapolis, USA.

Karen is best known for her debut novel, For the Mercy of Water (Penguin SA), which recently won the Sunday Times Literary Award for Fiction. The award is given for a “work of rare imagination and style, evocative, textured and a tale so compelling as to become an enduring landmark in contemporary fiction”. Set in an anonymous, drought-stricken country where places and characters transcend geographic or cultural labelling, water becomes the currency of power, and fuel of corruption, and a strong metaphor for the protagonist’s psychological and spiritual awakening. Dealing with issues of gender violence, environmental threat and water scarcity, the novel follows a young writer as she follows the trail of a story into the broken heart of her country, and into herself. (Read More)
 
(c) Sven Kristian. Used with permission

John van de Ruitis an actor, playwright and author who was been educated at Michaelhouse and received a Master’s degree in Drama and Performance studies from The University of KwaZulu – Natal. His highly successful stage shows of Green Mamba and Black Mamba (in collaboration with Ben Voss) performed to sell-out audiences around South Africa as well as receiving numerous awards. (Read More)

As National Director of Public Prosecutions from 2005 until 2007, Advocate Vusi Pikoli pursued criminal charges against the current President of South Africa Jacob Zuma and the convicted former National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. It was his dogged determination to bring the country’s top cop to account that ultimately saw Pikoli removed from office and a public inquiry into his suspension held.(Read More)

Jassy Mackenzie is from a family where books weren’t just more important than television, they were so important that television was banned from the house. She lives on a smallholding outside Johannesburg and shares her life with her wonderful partner Dion, two horses and two cats. Her first novel, Random Violence, featuring the feisty P.I. Jade de Jong, was published by Umuzi in South Africa in 2008 and shortlisted for Best First Book in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Africa region. It was published by Soho Press in the USA, where it was nominated for a Shamus Award in the Best First Book category and received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal. 

Eugene Ashton is the Sales and Marketing Director of Jonathan Ball Publishers. He has a Masters degree in history and in addition to his day job, serves on the executive of the Publishers’ Association of South Africa.

Patricia Glyn made her name as a broadcaster on South African radio and TV where she hosted news and actuality programmes, did profile interviews, music shows, quizzes and documentaries. During the 13 years she was on air, Patricia spent her vacations enjoying the great African outdoors. She hiked in wilderness areas, walked 500 kilometres through Zimbabwe at a rate of 50 kilometres per day, canoed sections of several of Africa’s great rivers, climbed Kilimanjaro twice, and Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the Southern Hemisphere) once – all but the last 300 metres when the team was beaten back by a killer storm. (Read More)