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Happy Sad Land
No Worries
Jack and Zena
The Craic
1900 House
Castaway
Robbie Williams
- Somebody Someday

Tribe
The Meaning of Tingo and Toujours Tingo
Going Dutch in Beijing
The Thingummy
Walking with the Wounded
The Festival Murders
Cruising To Murder
Murder Your Darlings
Murder On Tour
Ghosted


HAPPY SAD LAND (1994) - Reviews

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'His travelogue offers a unique snapshot of South Africa when apartheid was in its death throes ... an engaging read'
(LITERARY REVIEW)

'the verbatim record speaks more eloquently than any commentary by a visiting journalist ... his cameos are drawn with a wit which leavens the depressing bigotry .... this travel book is a frothy jaunt, a sort of neo-colonial road movie ... funny in parts and a good read for anybody wanting to gain an insight into a colourful society on a colourful continent'
(YORKSHIRE POST)

'Happy Sad Land is an ambitious project: an attempt to combine a classic travel book with an oral political history'
(THE TIMES)

'Some whites refer to the approaching elections as 'The End'. McCrum prefers to regard it as the end of a nightmare ... his book is well worth reading'
(Gerald Kaufman in the MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS)

'Non-fiction book of the month ... the images you take away from this book are not solely ones of violence, but also of hope'
(MARIE-CLAIRE)

'well-crafted, amusing and admirably well-paced'
(WEEKLY JOURNAL)

'Happy Sad Land is above all an honest book - grinding no axes, over-dramatising no incidents, concealing no dreariness'
(Dervla Murphy in the TLS)

'this remarkable travel book ... succeeds poignantly in painting a closely observed picture of a country in transition'
(CANBERRA TIMES)

'McCrum succeeds in portraying the complex range of views and personalities that lie behind the simplicity of the news stories. His Africa is given a sharp political edge while retaining in his affectionate portrait of Botswana a mysterious otherness'
(THE SCOTSMAN)

'Happy Sad Land' was read in six parts on Radio Four's 'Book at Bedtime' by Richard E. Grant.
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