James Wood Experience by Martin Amis (Jonathan Cape) Experience is a beautiful, and beautifully strange book, and it is unlike anything one expected. One feared a trough of plaint: either a sad, Gosse-like reckoning with the father; or an angry, journalistic reckoning with those journalists who have hunted Amis from tooth to tooth. But Experience […]

REUTERS, Johannesburg | Friday CONSTRUCTION and engineering company, Group Five Ltd, expected a sharp improvement in business, despite the 50% plunge in earnings per share in the last year. The group, which was hit by significant losses in its engineering division and a sluggish performance in construction, expects its EPS to surge by 70% in […]

Martin Kettle For nearly a century, human visitors to the North Pole have found a frozen, featureless scene covered in thick ice. Until now. Earlier this month, a group of international scientists aboard a Russian ice-breaker arrived at the pole to find not ice but a stretch of open water at least 1km wide, with […]

Neal Collins cricket First England beat the West Indies in three days at Lord’s after taking a three-day beating at Edgbaston. Then they needed just two days to go 2-1 up in the series at Headingley. That’s nothing. Based on this trend towards shorter, more exciting Tests, my team of researchers have revealed that, by […]

Khadija Magardie A Free State school principal who wrote acid testimonials for a group of matric pupils has dashed the hopes of the youngsters of studying further or getting jobs after school. The letters of reference from the poisoned pen of the principal of Diphetoho High School, in Botha-ville, near Kroonstad, conclude with the principal’s […]

Jaspreet Kindra Liberia’s ambassador to South Africa this week conceded that the arrest of the four journalists in Monrovia on charges of spying was the latest in the series of blows to the country’s credibility. Ambassador Llewellyn Witherspoon said the arrests “did not help the country’s image”. The four journalists, including South African cameraman Gugu […]

habit’ Melinda Ferguson Oliver Christensen is 19 years old. At 17 he was hardened crack addict, a dealer and a thief. He was caught selling drugs at school. Faced with a heavy jail sentence, he found his way out of a mire of darkness. This is his story: I always wanted to do forbidden things. […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT and REUTERS, Johannesburg | Friday THE South African Diamond Board said its dispute with De Beers, which had delayed two of the firm’s export consignments, centred on how to price diamond exports from the country. In a bid to solve this ongoing saga, the ministry of minerals and energy said it would fast-track […]

blind Anthea Jeffery Crossfire To most South Africans, the word “racism” probably has its conventional meaning – connoting intentionally disparate treatment founded on race. Given our apartheid history, it refers to laws that deprive black people of the vote, or bar them from owning land, or exclude them from “white” schools and hospitals. It also […]

Iden Wetherell South Africa is being asked to firm up its support for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s beleaguered regime by putting in place credit lines and trade incentives to help revive its northern neighbour’s ailing economy. But realities on the ground across the Limpopo could put paid to the best of intentions by Pretoria’s planners. […]