Ted Botha’s books have been praised as “enthralling,” “crackling,” and “thrilling,” but also “heartfelt” and “highly readable.” The author Deon Meyer called his “Daisy de Melker” “an instant classic,” while Alexandra Fuller described “The Girl with the Crooked Nose” as “extraordinary.”
"I loved it. Please sign me up for the first copy of every new Ted Botha book." - Darrel Bristow-Bovey
"Like Mark Harris, William Goldman and Shawn Levy ... Botha takes us from bird's-eye views into close-ups of Schlesinger's ambitious vision of a burgeoning film industry and the pursuit of a definitive African epic." - Chris Broodryk
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. Reviewers have called it as exciting as a novel that you can't wait to see what happens next - except it's all incredibly true.
“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 finds Daisy in the midst of a Johannesburg that rivaled Chicago in its day for its huge cast of colorfully devious and often murderous characters. She not only lived up to their infamy but in many cases outdid them.
“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.” – 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 with catching criminals who were thought to have escaped justice forever. It leads him from the gritty streets of Philadelphia to a horrific chain of murders on the eerie, dusty backroads of Mexico.
“Botha’s book describes a New York that exists way beyond the usual tourist haunts. ... (It 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 – replete with police raids, drug-dealing, corruption, and one dear frail old lady – and how Ted Botha, a newly arrived journalist in the city, got sucked into the middle of his own real-life drama. It reads like a New York version of The Yacoubian Building, with rats.
“A wild, hilarious, utterly engaging adventure… Through the captivating dialogue and interactions of his wonderful cast of characters, Botha reveals much about human folly and vanity.” – Monique Verduyn
Best-selling author Ted Botha’s first novel takes you into a world once visited by Graham Greene and William Boyd, where you are whisked away on “a thrilling wild escapade” of a tale - told with "sharp wit and satire"- full of passion, drama and the triumph of the human spirit.
‘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.