When Siya Kolisi leads the Springboks out onto the field at the Rugby World Cup in September 2019, it will be the crowning glory of an incredible journey that began on the impoverished streets of Zwide, a township outside Port Elizabeth. As the first black South African to captain a Springbok rugby team, Kolisi's remarkable story is unique and deserves to be heard. His mother was a teenager when he was born. She left him in the care of his grandmother who brought him up until she died (in his arms) when Siya was twelve. He found love and acceptance playing junior rugby with the African Bombers club until his talent was spotted by the prestigious Grey High School who offered Siya a full scholarship that changed his life. He adapted well to the posh private school, but it was on the rugby field where he excelled. Siya was rewarded with a call-up the SA schools team and a contract to join the Western Province rugby union. Author Jeremy Daniel tracks Siya's journey from running wild on the streets of Zwide, through some crucial games in high school, into the Western Province rugby set-up and his fight to become Springbok captain. He goes deep inside the systems that identify junior talent, the characters who shaped his journey and the moments where he showed who he really was. Siya never forgot where he came from, and ultimately adopted his mother's other two children after she died when he was in high school. His life has not been without controversy, and his marriage to a fiery young white woman was a lightning rod for racial politics. But he is a shining beacon of hope for South Africa, he is massively popular and there is a huge appetite from the public to know about his life and to support him as Springbok captain.

‘Siya's rise from humble beginnings to lifting that World Cup trophy is the stuff of fairytales.’ MARCUS RASHFORD ‘Siya Kolisi is a warrior on the field and an inspiration off it. This book is an extraordinary reminder of what can be achieved with inner belief and an indefatigable spirit.’ JAY SHETTY

When Rassie Erasmus took over as coach of the Springboks in 2018, few thought they had a chance of winning the Rugby World Cup. The Boks had slipped to seventh in the world rankings and lost the faith of the rugby-loving public. Less than two years later, jubilant crowds lined the streets of South Africa's cities to welcome back the victorious team. Sportswriter Lloyd Burnard takes the reader on the thrilling journey of a team that went from no-hopers to world champions. He examines how exactly this turnaround was achieved. Interviews with players, coaches and support staff reveal how the principles of inclusion, openness and focus, as well as careful planning and superb physical conditioning, became the basis for a winning formula. The key roles played by Rassie Erasmus and Siya Kolisi shine through. There were ups and downs along the way: beating the All Blacks in Wellington during the Rugby Championship was a high point, but then came Kolisi's injury, while in Japan the distractions of a volatile support base sometimes shook the players' focus. Miracle Men is filled with marvellous anecdotes and sharp insights. It is also inspiring testimony to what can be achieved when a group of South Africans from all backgrounds come together as a team.

This is a moving story of the rise to fame from humble beginnings of one of South Africa's most popular rugby stars, written specifically for young readers. Early on in his life, Siya discovered that rugby could be his route out of the grinding poverty in which he had grown up in the Eastern Cape. He worked hard, made sure he was noticed and managed to secure a scholarship to the prestigious Grey High School. But he had to adapt quickly to a world he had never encountered, while keeping his roots in the community that he knew and loved. His hard work and natural ability saw him moving to Cape Town to join the Stormers, trying to break into the Springbok team, and learning to adjust to life at the top of the game that is a national obsession. Siya Kolisi is part of the 'Road to Glory' series, which covers some of South Africa's sporting legends as they set out on their journeys to becoming national and international stars.

“There will be a black Springbok over my dead body.” — Dr Danie Craven, President of the South African Rugby Board, 1969 Just a year after the controversial D’Oliveira affair, the organised disruption of the all-white 1969/70 South African rugby and cricket tours to Britain represented a significant challenge to apartheid politics. Led by future cabinet minister Peter Hain, the ‘Stop the Seventy Tour’ campaign brought about the cancellation of both tours, presaging white South Africa’s expulsion from the Olympics and the end of apartheid sport altogether. With his brand of attention-grabbing, direct action sports protest, the 19-year-old Hain emerged as a hero to some and enemy to others. Now, reflecting on these experiences with fifty years of hindsight, Lord Hain, together with South Africa’s foremost sports historian and fellow anti-apartheid activist André Odendaal, shows how decades of relentless international and domestic campaigning for equality led to a Springbok team captained by black athlete Siya Kolisi winning the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Interspersing a wide range of examples with personal testimony, Pitch Battles explores the themes of sport, globalisation and resistance from the deep past to the present day. Published in the same year as the Stop The Tour documentary from acclaimed director Louis Myles, this compelling story of sacrifice, struggle and triumph reveals how sport should never be divorced from politics or society’s values.

A high-octane journey into the brutal underworld of the South African and transnational drug trade. Journalist Hazel Friedman was on assignment in Thailand to document the stories of the increasing number of South Africans convicted as drug mules when she made a horrifying discovery. Many of the drug traffickers are in fact decoys. These individuals find themselves coerced or deceived into drug running. The 'dead cows' are set up to be arrested, thereby allowing professional mules carrying much larger quantities of drugs to slip past undetected. Through the heartbreaking accounts of the prisoners, Friedman became convinced that the decoys should not be viewed as perpetrators of narcotics trafficking. Her own high-risk investigations – including an attempt to get recruited as a drug mule (filmed with a secret camera), as well as trying to track down the middlemen – appeared to confirm this. She concluded that many drug mules are victims of human trafficking – as pawns readily sacrificed in a profit-driven war waged by global drug barons.

An examination of families and schools in South Africa, revealing how the marketisation of schooling works to uphold the privilege of whiteness.

'AB hopped over the boundary rope and onto the field, grinning at the sight and sound of a packed Wanderers Stadium. He swung his bat from side to side and listened to the crowd roaring his name.' So begins the wonderfully entertaining story of the rise to fame of one of South Africa's favourite sporting stars. Written specifically for youngsters aged 10 –14, it takes the reader close to all the action, and the ups and downs. AB was already building a name as a great schoolboy tennis and rugby player, but when he decided to focus on cricket the word spread quickly about a talent that could not be contained. With two brothers a lot older than him, AB learned early how to play hard and never give up. In this inspiring story we watch as AB progresses through high school, then 'varsity, and learns how to play against the best. In his first Test series, AB struggles and wonders if he's good enough to make it at this level. However, the outcome is an inspiration to sports fans and readers who love a good story.

'People think they know him but unless you read this book you will never know the REAL Alun Wyn Jones' – Warren Gatland ‘One of the greatest, and seemingly indestructible, players in history' – A Daily Mail Book of the Year Belonging is the story about how the boy from Mumbles became the most capped rugby union player of all time. It is the story of what it takes to become a man who is seen by many as one of the greatest ever Welsh players. What it takes to go from sitting cross-legged on the hall floor at school watching the 1997 Lions tour of South Africa, to being named the 2021 Lions captain. But is it also about perthyn – belonging: playing for Wales, working his way through the age grades and club rugby and his regional side. How to earn the right to be there, and what it feels like to make the sacrifices along the way. Feeling the connection to players who have come before, and feeling the ties to the millions in front rooms and pubs across the country, coast to coast. Knowing that deep down you want to belong, as everyone does. From playing on the rain-swept pitches of Swansea to making his test debut against Argentina in Patagonia in 2006; from touring with the Lions in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021 to dealing with loss and creating a family – Belonging is the autobiography of one of the most compelling figures in world rugby. Told with characteristic honesty, this is his unique personal story of what it takes and what it means to play for your country: what it means to belong.