Ted Botha’s books have been praised as “enthralling,” “highly readable,” “crackling,” “heartfelt,” “thrilling,” “electrifying.” The author Deon Meyer called his “Daisy de Melker” “an instant classic,” while the author Alexandra Fuller described his “The Girl with the Crooked Nose” as “extraordinary.”
“I loved it.” – Darrell Bristow-Bovey
“A welcome addition to the works of Mark Harris and William Goldman.” – Chris Broodryk
In “Hollywood on the Veld,” Ted Botha pries open the world of an unknown Hollywood in the gold-mining mecca of early Johannesburg. This is the incredible and previously untold story of a secretive American millionaire who tried to create his own movie empire in Africa, making the biggest movies in the world when Hollywood itself was just in its infancy. The book, says one film historian, reads like William Goldman’s “Adventures in the Screen Trade.”
“Botha has created an instant classic … Totally enthralling. I devoured it.” – Deon Meyer
“… shiny, gutsy, gritty, and utterly electrifying …” – Lauren Beukes
She was as notorious as Bonnie and Clyde and the great serial killers in recent history. Mother and housewife Daisy de Melker lived in a city where crime was so common that she could hide in the shadows as she went about her methodical executions. Ted Botha’s best-selling book places Daisy in the midst of a Johannesburg that rivaled Chicago in its day for its colorfully devious and often murderous cast of characters.
“Delightfully weird and thought-provoking enough to make you consider panning through garbage for gold.” – Entertainment Weekly
“(Ted Botha) leads us on the Grand Tour – often at night and occasionally through the muck-filled underground – of all our glorious and magical and maybe even mystical crap.” – Robert Sullivan.
Ted Botha takes you into the fascinating late-night streets of New York City, where we meet the pack rats, the treasure hunters, the voyeurs, the anarchists, the archaeologists, and the soda can collectors who make up a strange and wonderful demi-monde that lives in the shadows.
“Botha has written an extraordinary and timely book. Partly the portrait of an impassioned man, partly a true-crime story, partly the heartbreaking tale of the murdered women of Juárez, this is also the true story of how, at heart, life’s most important work has nothing to do with making money and everything to do with making a difference.” – Alexandra Fuller
“A compelling glimpse into a gruesome profession.” – Simon Winchester
Thirty murders, nine fugitives, and one man obsessed with solving crimes that were thought to be unsolvable and to catch criminals who were thought to have escaped justice forever. It leads him from the gritty streets of Philadelphia to a horrific chain of murders in on the dusty tracks of Mexico.
“Botha’s book describes a New York that exists way beyond the usual tourist haunts. An acute observer with an eye for the illuminating social detail, his rueful account of his attempts to negotiate the obstacles and fathom foreign ways is consistently amusing and occasionally profound.” – Natal Witness
“A beautiful heartfelt memoir of life in a hidden city.” – Douglas Rogers
The true story of a chaotic, broken, and terribly problematic building in New York City – not to mention police raids, drugs, corruption, and one frail old lady – and how a newly arrived journalist in the city Ted Botha got sucked into the middle of his own real-life drama. It reads like a New York version of The Yacoubian Building.
“A wild, hilarious, utterly engaging adventure that traverses continents and timelines, transporting readers from modern to colonial Africa and back again, with stops in London, Manila and Mexico City…Through the captivating dialogue and interactions of his wonderful cast of characters, he reveals much about human folly and vanity.” – Monique Verduyn
Best-selling author Ted Botha’s first novel has been praised as a mixture of Evelyn Waugh and William Boyd that “blends sharp wit and satire” and “takes you on “a thrilling wild escapade” through modern-day and wartime Africa.
‘Funny, witty, caustic, enormously readable.’ – Jenny Crwys-Williams
A journey by train and road through Africa at the worst possible time for a white South African. The young journalist Ted Botha throws caution to the wind, and heads north, out of a country in turmoil and into a continent he was dying to understand but which wasn’t exactly happy to see him.