Ted Botha – författare

In The Girl with the Crooked Nose, Ted Botha tells the absorbing story of Frank Bender, a gifted, self-taught artist who can bring back the dead and the vanished through a unique, macabre sculpting talent. Bender has been the key to solving at least nine murders and tracking down numerous criminals. Then he is called upon to tackle the most challenging and bizarre case of his career.Someone is killing the young women of Juarez. Since 1993, the decomposing bodies of as many as four hundred victims, known as feminicidios, have been found in the desert surrounding this gritty Mexican border town. In 2003, prodded by local political pressure and international attention, the Mexican authorities turn to the United States to help solve these horrific crimes. The man they turn to is Bender. Through breathtakingly realistic sculptures, Bender reconstructs the faces of unknown murder victims or fugitives whose appearances are certain to have changed over years on the run. The busts are based in part on the painstaking application of forensic science to fleshless human skulls and in part on deep intuition, an uncanny ability to discern not only a missing face but also the personality behind it. Arriving in Mexico, Bender works in secrecy, in a culture of corruption and casual violence where the line between criminals and law enforcement is blurry, braving anonymous threats and sinister coincidences to give eight skulls back their faces and, hopefully, their histories. Drawn to one skull in particular–"The Girl With the Crooked Nose"–Bender gradually comes to suspect that perhaps he is not meant to succeed, and that the true solution to the mystery of the feminicidios is far more terrible than anyone has dared to imagine. Ted Botha brilliantly weaves Bender’s story–the cases he has solved, the intricacies of his art, the colorful characters he encounters, and the personal cost of his strange obsession–with the chilling story of the Juarez investigation. With a conclusion as shocking as its story is gripping, The Girl with the Crooked Nose will haunt readers long after the last page is turned. “…[a] crackling account of a quirky, maverick forensics artist, Frank Bender, and his largely successful efforts in facial reconstruction of murder victims…. extraordinary is Botha''s writing, with his unerring depiction of Bender''s painstaking work and the eventual unraveling of the brutal crimes it solves…. the tales in this book accurately capture the dark motives and complexities of senseless murder, and even the most savvy true-crime reader will not be able to resist the author''s insightful storytelling."--Publishers Weekly

This indispensable textbook provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of plant anatomy and emphasizes the application of plant anatomy and its relevance to modern botanical research. The companion website, ‘The Virtual Plant’, offers a collection of high quality photographs and scanning electron microscope images giving students access to the microscopic detail of plant structures essential to gaining a real understanding of the subject.  Exercises for the laboratory are also included, making this work an indispensable resource for lectures and laboratory classes.  Plant Anatomy is an essential reference for undergraduates taking courses in plant anatomy, applied plant anatomy and plant biology courses; and for researchers and postgraduates in plant sciences.

This indispensable textbook provides a comprehensive overview of all aspects of plant anatomy and emphasizes the application of plant anatomy and its relevance to modern botanical research.

The companion website, ‘The Virtual Plant’, offers a collection of high quality photographs and scanning electron microscope images giving students access to the microscopic detail of plant structures essential to gaining a real understanding of the subject.  Exercises for the laboratory are also included, making this work an indispensable resource for lectures and laboratory classes.  Vist: http://virtualplant.ru.ac.za/Main/virtual_Cover.htm to access these resources.

Plant Anatomy is an essential reference for undergraduates taking courses in plant anatomy, applied plant anatomy and plant biology courses; and for researchers and postgraduates in plant sciences.

A true crime classic about Daisy de Melker in ragtime Joburg – a city of murder, mayhem and gold. Ted Botha takes the reader into the underbelly of Johannesburg in the 1920s and 1930s as he traces the fascinating story of the mysterious Daisy de Melker, who was hanged for poisoning her son. Many also believed she poisoned two husbands for their life insurance money. In the shadow of ever-growing mine dumps, she went about her business quietly and unnoticed – the most unlikely of killers. Even though people close to her kept dying, no one suspected a thing for twenty years. When someone finally spoke up, it led to one of South Africa’s most sensational trials. De Melker’s story unfolds in tandem with those of colourful Johannesburg characters of the same period such as the Foster Gang, Herman Charles Bosman, the dashing conman Baron von Veltheim and a Bonny-and-Clyde-style couple, Dicky Mallalieu and Gwen Tolputt. Some cross paths with each other and also those of famous writers of the era such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sarah Gertrude Millin.

Mother. Nurse. Gold-digger. Cause célèbre. When Daisy de Melker stood trial in 1932, accused of poisoning her son and two husbands, the public couldn''t get enough of her. Crowds gathered outside court baying for blood, and she waved to them like a celebrity.Against the backdrop of Johannesburg in its golden age, a booming metropolis of opulence and chaos nicknamed the ''City of Gold'' and the ''University of Crime'', she had quietly gone about her sinister business while around her sensational crimes grabbed the headlines. There was the marauding Foster Gang, which left at least ten people dead; a dashing German hustler; a local Bonnie and Clyde; an innocent student walking in Zoo Lake park at the wrong time and a man who escaped death row to become one of South Africa''s most revered authors. These interlinking stories are told in the style of a thriller and with riveting, kaleidoscopic detail.In Daisy de Melker, Ted Botha weaves together a fantastic cast of killers and con men, detectives and lawmen, journalists and authors – even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Herman Charles Bosman – to depict a grand and desperate city. For almost twenty years Daisy hid in the shadows but when someone finally spoke up about the suspicious deaths around her, it led to a trial like nothing the City of Gold had ever seen and spread her name across the world.

In 1913, a secretive American millionaire, who lived on the top floor of the famous Carlton Hotel, had a crazy idea: to make movies in Johannesburg. And not just any movies but the biggest in the world, huge spectacles with elaborate sets, thousands of extras and epic story lines. Isidore Schlesinger – better known as ‘IW’ – built a studio on a farm called Killarney, where he set out to challenge a place in America that was in its infancy: Hollywood. The glamour, gossip and high drama of IW’s studio fit perfectly into a city experiencing an intoxicating golden age. There was as much action on the movie sets as there was on screen: from political intrigue and the clashing of massive egos to public outbursts, fiery judicial inquiries, disaster and death. Behind this mad enterprise was a maverick, a tycoon, a recluse, a friend of the famed and the connected. IW could have held his own in California, but he chose as his base the City of Gold, and his indomitable ambition saw his ‘Hollywood on the Veld’ soar. This is the never-been-told-before story of the rise and fall of the strangest and most unique movie empire ever.

In 1913, a secretive American millionaire, who lived on the top fl oor of the famous Carlton Hotel, had a crazy idea: to make movies in Johannesburg. And not just any movies but the biggest in the world, huge spectacles with elaborate sets, thousands of extras and epic story lines.Isidore Schlesinger – better known as ''IW'' – built a studio on a farm called Killarney, where he set out to challenge a place in America that was in its infancy: Hollywood.The glamour, gossip and high drama of IW''s studio fitted perfectly into a city experiencing an intoxicating golden age. There was as much action on the movie sets as there was on screen: from political intrigue and the clashing of massive egos to public outbursts, fiery judicial inquiries, disaster and death.Behind this mad enterprise was a maverick, a tycoon, a recluse, a friend of the famed and the connected. Schlesinger could have held his own in California but he chose as his base the City of Gold, and his indomitable ambition saw his ''Hollywood on the Veld'' soar. This is the untold story of the rise and fall of the strangest and most unique movie empire ever.