Michael Rogers – författare

Years from now, becoming increasingly desperate for a new life away from London, Alice and Geoff Hewitt make the move to what they think is the perfect village in the English countryside to begin afresh. Their idyllic new start is cut tragically short when their seven year old daughter Joy is abducted and murdered by a paedophile named Leo Faulkner as she walks home from school with her sister Kate.

The whole of the United Kingdom is forced into a bleak winter of soul searching as the Government tries to introduce legislation to restore the death penalty and execute Leo. The young Prime Minister and his Justice Secretary face stiff opposition from human rights groups and heavy pressure from the tabloid media, whilst Joys parents differ on their definition of justice.

The Hewitts try to rebuild their life after Joys death but find their differing views driving them apart and ruining their marriage. Geoff s relationship with Alice takes an abrupt dive into alcoholism and violence. Leo waits in jail for his fate to be decided and when Kate becomes a mother she is forever haunted by the trauma of what happened to her sister. Everything changes when Leo undergoes a dramatic transformation of character, and the parole board are tasked with the unthinkable decision of whether or not to release the reformed murderer back into society.

Just how much is a human life really worth?

I am a coconut because my body is black but my spirit inside it is white. The skin is just a shell, fragile and frail; when you cut into it there is a sense of shock when the white milk is revealed. If you split my coconut shell in half and remove it you will see a completely new body on the inside; I think she looks a bit like Marilyn Monroe, only with better legs and juicier hips.

Lerato Dlamini is the next Queen of South Africa on her way to her coronation. During her journey she explores a beautifully diverse land being torn apart by division and hatred as Apartheid takes hold. But out of the hopelessness a steady light is shining: Nelson Mandela refuses to give up the fight for freedom even when he is jailed as a terrorist.

After a chance encounter with Mandela as a child, Lerato is deluded into thinking that he is in love with her. She thinks he is commanding her to rescue him from jail and promising her that upon his coronation as King they will be married. The years roll on and the likelihood of her mission succeeding appears to wane, but like Mandela she never gives up hope. Will she reach Cape Town before its too late?