A Bullet Called Gonzo (1937-2005)
'When I finish,' Hunter S. Thompson wrote in 1979, 'the only fitting exit will be right straight off this ... terrace and into the Fountain, 28 storeys below.' Crazy talk, but his preface to The Great Shark Hunt prophesied his suicide 26 years later.
Nothing Clean-Cut about Zim's Murky Rough
Zimbabwe’s Marange fields have been called ‘the biggest find of alluvial diamonds in history’. But they are also the hottest flashpoint on the world diamond-map today, putting into a crisis a global system for telling the good stones apart from the bloody.
Gentlemen of the Press
Although South Africans win gold the world over for their extra virgin olive oil, back at the ranch it's a different story. The oil might be extra virgin, but the industrial farmers and artisanal types who chase after it can be in for a rude – and rough – deflowering.
Coming to Terms
Sports agents Mike Makaab and Craig Livingstone represent the cream of the nation's athletes, who command jaw-dropping fees from clubs and sponsors. Our author rolls up his sleeves, takes aim for glory, and auditions for the A-list.
Warning: Killer on the Road
Her face is blank, almost babyish in its featurelessness; in her eyes there is no tomorrow. Like thousands of other young rural women, she moves from hand to hand in the dangerous intersection between two industries: sex work and road freight-trucking.
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Writing Courses
André Wiesner offers an exciting introductory course in feature writing, hosted by the University of Cape Town and the online education company GetSmarter. As Tom Wolfe said, journalism happens when you 'leave the building' and feel the wind in your hair, and this practical short course gets students hitting the streets – and seeing the world with fresh eyes – on assignments they can manage in their spare time.
They also interact daily with each other and the instructor on web forums, where they access video lectures, course notes, mentoring feedback on their writing, and a bunch of other stuff to help them get ahead in public-interest journalism as well as the growing fields of content marketing, brand journalism and organisational communications.