At the end of the nineteenth century European pimps and 'white slavers' established a hugely successful global market for commercial sex. Criminal syndicates from Buenos Aires to London and from Cape Town to New York were able to organise the seduction or rape of women in under-developed parts of Europe and their 'export' as prostitutes to meet an insatiable demand for sexual services. For three turbulent decades before the First World War, Joseph Silver - brothel-owner, pimp and trafficker in women on four continents - was central to this hidden world of betrayal, intrigue, lust and sexual slavery. Burglar, gun-runner, jewel-thief, rapist, safe-cracker and sodomist, Silver's notoriety was captured in the most confidential correspondence of a dozen countries in the western world. What those in charge of law-enforcement agencies kept to themselves, however, was how their officers had attempted to use Silver as an informer to infiltrate syndicates built on 'vice', only to have him outwit them as he moved in the dangerous space between police and prostitutes. A disturbed adolescent, youthful predator and adult misogynist driven by dark biblical and medieval obsessions, Silver's mental universe remained largely hidden from his family, other gangsters and police handlers. In this first reconstruction of the life of a dangerous psychopath, Charles van Onselen situates the private life of one man amidst the demi-monde of the Atlantic world to identify the most infamous serial killer of all time - for Joseph Silver's darkest secret of all lay in London, in Whitechapel, in the autumn of 1888.
A biography of Pik Botha, one of South Africa’s most colourful public figures, and at a stage the longest serving Foreign Minister in the world.This biography reads like a novel: exciting, moving and humorous.
Sam Jonah and the remaking of Ashanti recounts the inspirational life of one of Africa's most prominent black businessmen. From working underground as a shovel boy to his appointment as the CEO of the trailblazing African gold mining company, Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, Sam Jonah's determination to surmount every obstacle in a career strewn with hurdles makes for compelling reading. Frenzied deals, boardroom cliffhangers, political scandal and private battles punctuate this unique account of the challenges of conducting 'First World' business in the 'Third World'. Through Jonah's corporate leadership we explore the paradox that a continent so richly endowed with gold and other minerals should find itself in such dire poverty. It is a hopeful story about breaking the confines of one's circumstances, not just for Africans but for individuals the world over.
Hierdie verhaal handeloor die emosionele invloed wat aflegging op 'n gewone middelklasgesin het - die broodwinner wie se selfbeeld flenters is, hoe elkeen in die gesin emosioneel moet oorleef en watter planne gemaak moet word om die geldwolf vandie deur af te hou.
