Liz McGregor – författare

A searing, intimate memoir tracing the author’s attempt to find out the truth about her father’s murder. Robin McGregor, an older man who has recently moved into a small town outside Cape Town, is brutally murdered in his home. Cecil Thomas is convicted for the crime, but his trial leaves more questions than answers. As much as his daughter Liz McGregor tries to move beyond her grief – she finds new work, she even discovers love – she still wants answers. What drove Thomas to torture and kill a complete stranger? The author meets the murderer’s family and discovers that he comes from a loving, comfortable home. He is educated and skilled, there is no apparent reason for his descent into delinquency. After protracted obstruction from the prison authorities, she finally gets to confront him but not without putting herself in danger. She finds answers, but not the answers she is looking for. Unforgiven tells a story seldom told: what happens to a family when one of their own is murdered? In a country where, year upon year, tens of thousands of people lose a loved one to violence. Where restorative justice is preached but not practiced. Where prisons are universities of crime. What would it take to achieve redemption? For the victim, the perpetrator and the country?

"Liz McGregor has always been a great journalist but only South Africa could have wrung out of her this single-minded account of the murder of her beloved father. The book is an indescribable duty, exquisitely done." – Peter Bruce"An enthralling account of the journey by a daughter to meet with those convicted of her father''s murder." – Trevor ManuelA searing, intimate memoir tracing the author''s attempt to find out the truth about her father''s murder.Robin McGregor, an older man who has recently moved into a small town outside Cape Town, is brutally murdered in his home. Cecil Thomas is convicted for the crime, but his trial leaves more questions than answers. As much as his daughter Liz McGregor tries to move beyond her grief – she finds new work, she even discovers love – she still wants answers. What drove Thomas to torture and kill a complete stranger?The author meets the murderer''s family and discovers that he comes from a loving, comfortable home. He is educated and skilled, there is no apparent reason for his descent into delinquency. After protracted obstruction from the prison authorities, she finally gets to confront him but not without putting herself in danger. She finds answers, but not the answers she is looking for.Unforgiven tells a story seldom told: what happens to a family when one of their own is murdered? In a country where, year upon year, tens of thousands of people lose a loved one to violence. Where restorative justice is preached but not practiced. Where prisons are universities of crime. What would it take to achieve redemption? For the victim, the perpetrator and the country?

'This is a shocking story told by a searingly honest writer ready to look her country - and herself - squarely in the eye. It offers no false cheer, but something far more valuable and compelling: the often painful truth.' JONATHAN FREEDLAND, Author, The Escape Artist'A heart-wrenching and illuminating memoir of a daughter's quest for answers and the ever-elusive "closure"' KERRY DAYNES, Author, The Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies BuriedA searing, intimate memoir tracing the author's attempt to find out the truth about her father's murder.Robin McGregor, an older man who has recently moved into a small town outside Cape Town, is brutally murdered in his home. Cecil Thomas is convicted for the crime, but his trial leaves more questions than answers. As much as his daughter Liz McGregor tries to move beyond her grief - she finds new work, she even discovers love - she still wants answers. What drove Thomas to torture and kill a complete stranger?The author meets the murderer's family and discovers that he comes from a loving, comfortable home. He is educated and skilled, there is no apparent reason for his descent into delinquency. After protracted obstruction from the prison authorities, she finally gets to confront him but not without putting herself in danger. She finds answers, but not the answers she is looking for.Unforgiven tells a story seldom told: what happens to a family when one of their own is murdered? In a country where, year upon year, tens of thousands of people lose a loved one to violence. Where restorative justice is preached but not practiced. Where prisons are universities of crime. What would it take to achieve redemption? For the victim, the perpetrator and the country?

South Africa is a land of contrasts, as the tourist brochures promise, and this is true for the game of rugby. From the Pretoria heartland to the aspirant Eastern Cape, from the hardscrabble Cape Flats to the islands of privilege at Bishops and Grey College. No other rugby-playing nation has to grapple with so much diversity. Different languages, classes, races and cultures - each bearing the wounds of the country's fractured past - have to be melded into winning teams. Liz McGregor has spent the past three years shadowing Currie Cup, Super 14 and Springbok teams across the country, and has come to the conclusion that it is this very diversity, combined with the pain of the past and the dreams of a great united future, that provide the elusive alchemy that separates a good team from a great one. Touch, Pause, Engage! is more than a book about rugby. It is an intimate look at how South Africa's erstwhile elite is adapting to its new circumstances. Team South Africa has been through many a maul and bruising scrum, but is inching closer and closer to the tryline.

South Africa is a land of contrasts, as the tourist brochures promise, and this is true for the game of rugby. From the Pretoria heartland to the aspirant Eastern Cape, from the hardscrabble Cape Flats to the islands of privilege at Bishops and Grey College. No other rugby-playing nation has to grapple with so much diversity. Different languages, classes, races and cultures - each bearing the wounds of the country''s fractured past - have to be melded into winning teams. Liz McGregor has spent the past three years shadowing Currie Cup, Super 14 and Springbok teams across the country, and has come to the conclusion that it is this very diversity, combined with the pain of the past and the dreams of a great united future, that provide the elusive alchemy that separates a good team from a great one. Touch, Pause, Engage! is more than a book about rugby. It is an intimate look at how South Africa''s erstwhile elite is adapting to its new circumstances. Team South Africa has been through many a maul and bruising scrum, but is inching closer and closer to the tryline. Liz McGregor is a veteran author and journalist who started off her career on leading South African newspapers and subsequently moved to Britain where she worked for the Guardian for several years. Her first book, Khabzela: The Life and Times of a South African, laid bare the complex reasoning behind a DJ''s refusal to take medication to stave off AIDS. She has co-edited and contributed to two collections of essays: At Risk and Load-shedding.

Imagine a Springbok as a finished product coming off a factory assembly line. What are the components required? And what does it take for them to cohere into a successful team? Author Liz McGregor spent two years behind the scenes interviewing the players, coaches, wives and girlfriends, mothers and teachers. She also spoke to the Bok doctor and physiotherapist, the sponsors, brand managers and the logistics guy. And then theres the boss, the South African Rugby Union. What she discovered is as fascinating as it is complex: that parents play a crucial role, as do those early coaches and teachers who identify and nurture talent; that injury lurks behind every corner; that it takes incredible courage to go back onto the field to face another battering; and that the business of the Springboks is one that is both well and poorly managed, depending where you look. By the end of her journey, McGregor had developed a deep regard for the players and many of the people who work to put the best team South Africa can offer onto the field. Nelson Mandela showed how a Springbok team can unite a nation.But there are parts of the Springbok Factory that are in urgent need of repair or, indeed, replacement.

South Africa is not an easy place in which to live. Soaring crime levels, xenophobia, rampant corruption and the rise to power of the controversial Jacob Zuma all signal the end of the dream years. A new personal resilience is needed to cope with a new political uncertainty. Load Shedding is a collection of non-fiction stories by some of South Africa''s pre-eminent authors, journalists and commentators, including Imraan Coovadia, Achille Mbembe, Deborah Posel and Karina Magdalena Szczurek, that reveal how we live under pressure. Written during the nation''s period of electricity blackouts, these personal accounts shine new light on our contemporary South African world.