Launch of Heartbreaker - The Life of Christian Barnard

Heartbreaker

Christian Barnard and the first heart transplant

Wednesday 6th December at 12 noon for 12h30

at The Pavilion, Kelvin Grove

The launch of Heartbreaker: Christiaan Barnard and the first heart transplant in the week of the 50th Anniversary of the First Human Heart Transplant was an exciting affair.

Author James Styan did extensive research in writing this book. There are many unknown facts about Heart Surgeon Christiaan Barnard which the author has uncovered that will warm your heart and some that will surprise you.  An outstanding speaker. 

The Book

In this new biography of Chris Barnard we not only learn about the life of South Africa’s most famous surgeon, from his Beaufort West childhood through his studies locally and abroad to his prominent marriages – and divorces – but James Styan also examines the impact of the historic heart transplant on Barnard’s personal life and South African society at large, where apartheid legislation often made the difficulties of medicine even more convoluted.

The role of black medical staff like Hamilton Naki is explored, as is the intense rivalry that arose between other famous heart surgeons and Barnard. How did Barnard manage to beat them all in this race of life and death? How much did his famous charisma have to do with it all?

In the light of his later years, his subsequent successes and considerable failures, what is Barnard’s legacy today?

Styan covers it all in this fascinating new account of a real heartbreaker.

A two-course lunch with wine was served.

For more information telephone Sandy on 021 685 8071 or email sandybailey@telkomsa.net

           

                                                                                                            

Jaques Pauw's Explosive Best Seller - November 2017

                                                                   

Buitenverwachting Restaurant

 Wednesday 22 November at 12 noon for 12h30

Guest Speaker Jacques Pauw spoke to us about his explosive book The President’s Keepers.

Journalist and author he was a founder member of the anti-apartheid Afrikaans newspaper Vrye Weekblad in the late 1980s, where he exposed the Vlakplaas police death squads. He worked for some of the country’s most esteemed publications before becoming a documentary filmmaker, producing documentaries on wars and conflicts in Rwanda, Burundi, Algeria, Liberia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone, among other countries.

When he left journalism in 2014, he was the head of investigations at Media24 newspapers. He has won the CNN African Journalist of the Year Award twice, the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting in the US, Italy’s Ilaria Alpi and the Nat Nakasa award for bravery and integrity in journalism. He is the author of five books: four non-fiction and one fiction. They are In the Heart of Whore, Into the Heart of Darkness, Dances with Devils, Rat Roads and Little Ice Cream Boy. Three of his books have been shortlisted for major literary awards.

The Book

Investigative journalist Jacques Pauw exposes the darkest secret at the heart of Jacob Zuma’s compromised government: a cancerous cabal that eliminates the president’s enemies and purges the law-enforcement agencies of good men and women. 

As Zuma fights for his political life following the 2017 Gupta emails leak, this cabal – the president’s keepers – ensures that after years of ruinous rule, he remains in power and out of prison. But is Zuma the puppet master, or their puppet?

Journey with Pauw as he explores the shadow mafia state. From KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape to the corridors of power in Pretoria and Johannesburg – and even to clandestine meetings in Russia. It’s a trail of lies and spies, cronies, cash and kingmakers as Pauw prises open the web of deceit that surrounds the fourth president of the democratic era.

Chef Patron Edgar Osojnik created a delicious menu which was accompanied by Buitenverwachting’s elegant and award-winning wines. 

Please telephone Sandy on 021 685 8016 for more information.  

‘An amazing piece of work, stuffed with anecdote and evidence. It will light fires all through the state and the ANC.’ Peter Bruce

‘This is dynamite. Dynamite that will shake the foundations of the halls of power.’ Max du Preez