Introducing the Alan Paton Readers’ Choice Award

For 30 years the Alan Paton award celebrated the best non-fiction in the country. From hefty political biographies to acute analyses of the state of the nation, the writers witnessed, interrogated and challenged the new nation that had come into being, and in so doing, helped us to understand ourselves.

The criteria that these books were judged on was: The illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power; compassion; elegance of writing; and intellectual and moral integrity.

As the Sunday Times Literary Awards take on a new shape with new sponsor CNA, we thought it is time to look back over the winners and ask readers to nominate their choice of the best of the best.

1989

White Tribe Dreaming by Marq de Villiers, Penguin Books

The history of the Afrikaner and South Africa, traced through the history of eight generations of the sprawling De Villiers clan.

1990

The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing of 1856-7 by Jeff Peires, Jonathan Ball Publishers

The story of the Xhosa girl whose prophecy of the resurrection of the dead lured an entire people to death by starvation.

1991

The Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter by Albie Sachs, David Philip Publishers

Albie Sachs’ memoir of his near-assasination by South African security agents, and his journey to becoming a Justice of the Constitutional Court.

1992

The Scramble for Africa by Thomas Pakenham, Jonathan Ball Publishers

A monumental study of the seismic period in African history when foreign powers grabbed much of the continent and subjugated millions of people.

1993

Tramp Royal: The true story of Trader Horn by Tim Couzens, Ravan Press and Wits University Press

A picaresque tale of an old adventurer who washed up in Johannesburg in the last years of his astonishing life.

1994

Return to Paradise by Breyten Breytenbach, David Philip Publishers

The veteran activist returns from exile to visit South Africa and explores his complex and painful relationship with his home country.

1995

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Abacus

The exhilarating story of an epic life that charts the experiences that helped to shape Madiba’s destiny.

1996

The Calling of Katie Makanya by Margaret McCord, David Philip Publishers

Makanya was a pioneering black nurse at the turn of the last century, and this moving memoir recalls the dramatic historical events she came to witness.

1997

The Seed is Mine: The Life of Kas Maine – A South African Sharecropper 1894 – 1985 by Charles van Onselen, David Philip Publishers

Centering on one character, this bold and innovative social history lays bare the lives of disenfranchised blacks who contributed so much to the building of South Africa.

1998

Africa: A Biography of the Continent by John Reader, Penguin Books

A splendid study, breathtaking in scope, that examines Africa’s myriad environments, peoples and histories.

1999

Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog, Random House

Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary by Stephen Clingman, David Philip Publishers

Antjie Krog captures the complexity and pain of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, while joint winner Stephen Clingman delves deeply into the life of struggle hero Bram Fischer.

2000

Mandela: The Authorised Biography by Anthony Sampson, Jonathan Ball Publishers

At the time this was billed as the most informed and comprehensive portrait of the statesman so far, written by the eminent journalist who had known him for more than four decades.

2001

A Mouthful of Glass by Henk van Woerden, translated by Dan Jacobson, Jonathan Ball Publishers

A recreation of the sad and desperate life of Dimitri Tsafendas, who assassinated Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd in 1966.

2002

The Dressing Station: A Surgeon’s Odyssey by Jonathan Kaplan, Picador

A fascinating account of the work of a field doctor, from battlefield surgeon to ship’s medical officer, always teetering at the edge of life and death.

2003

Midlands by Jonny Steinberg, Jonathan Ball Publishers

Beginning with the murder of a farmer’s son in KwaZulu Natal, this grows into a story about the midlands of the heart and mind, between possession and dispossession and between the past and the present.

2004

A Human Being Died That Night: A Story of Forgiveness by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, David Philip Publishers

A landmark book that sees the author, a clinical psychologist, meeting apartheid killer Eugene de Kock in prison. What follows is a journey into what it means to be human.

2005

The Number by Jonny Steinberg, Jonathan Ball Publishers

A deep dive into the reviled prison gangs in Cape Town. Steinberg reveals the complex structures of the so-called numbers gangs, focusing on one of the leaders, Magadien Wentzel.

2006

Witness to AIDS by Edwin Cameron, Tafelberg

Part memoir and part detailed analysis, Judge Edwin Cameron presents a moving account of living with AIDS, one of the first of its kind.

AIDSAFARI: A Memoir of My Journey with Aids by Adam Levin, Zebra Press

The joint winner of the prize presents another personal view of the illness. Raw, honest and often funny, Levin’s memoir is written with remarkable insight.

2007

Portrait with Keys: Joburg & what-what by Ivan Vladislavić, Umuzi

An intimately observed view of the teeming, ever-changing city and its inhabitants, by one of South Africa’s most esteemed writers.

2008

Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred by Mark Gevisser, Jonathan Ball Publishers

A profound psycho-political examination of this deeply flawed leader and a thorough examination of the state of the nation at that time.

2009

In a Different Time: The inside story of the Delmas four by Peter Harris, Umuzi

Narrated by their lawyer, this is a dramatic tale of men driven to extremes for an ideal, and of the terrible price the foot soldiers of the struggle paid.

2010

The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law by Albie Sachs, Oxford University Press

Sachs was appointed by Nelson Mandela to the very first Constitutional Court. Here he looks back on the cases before him and sets out his views on the nature of justice.

2011

The Unlikely Secret Agent by Ronnie Kasrils, Jacana Media

Kasrils writes with admiration for his wife Eleanor, who was a clandestine agent for the underground ANC. When the Security Police arrested her they threatened to “break her or hang her” unless she led them to Kasrils.

2012

Stones Against the Mirror: Friendship in the time of the South African struggle by Hugh Lewin, Umuzi

A fearless exploration of the betrayal of friends under interrogation, with the moral ambiguity that entails. One of the most unforgettable accounts of life in the active struggle.

2013

Endings & Beginnings: A Story of Healing by Redi Tlhabi, Jacana Media

The popular media personality shocked the country with this brave account of growing up in Soweto and her connection to a feared gangster.

2014

A Rumour of Spring: South Africa after 20 Years of Democracy by Max du Preez, Zebra Press

Veteran journalist and commentator Max du Preez took the nation’s temperature and asked the vital questions: How are we really doing? What is really going on in the country and will it get any better?

2015

Askari: A Story of Collaboration and Betrayal in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle by Jacob Dlamini, Jacana Media

The wrenching story of “Comrade September”, a popular MK commander who was tortured and “turned” by the apartheid security police, and then betrayed again.

2016

Rape: A South African Nightmare by Pumla Dineo Gqola, MF Books Joburg

The conclusive study on this diabolical societal problem that moves the urgent conversation around it further.

2017

Murder at Small Koppie: The Real Story of the Marikana Massacre by Greg Marinovich, Penguin Books

The renowned photojournalist reconstructs the fatal day and throws light on what really happened on the ground, information that was covered up by the authorities.

2018

The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley ka Isaka Seme by Bongani Ngqulunga, Penguin Books

A remarkable portrait of a fascinating but flawed man who began life at the Inanda mission and went on to travel the world and found the ANC.

2019

Everyone is Present: Essays on Photography, Family and Memory by Terry Kurgan, Fourthwall Books

An enthralling family memoir that also reads as a detective story, that takes us from Poland, Turkey and India to refuge in South Africa during the war years.