Veteran journalist Andrew Harding wins prestigious literary award

By Edward Tsumele

Veteran journalist and author Andrew Harding has won a top literary award for his nonfiction seminal bookThese are not gentle people, published in 2019 by Pan Macmillan.

“Pan Macmillan is delighted to congratulate Andrew Harding – winner of the Sunday Times CNA Literary Award for Nonfiction,” the publisher said yesterday about this literary triumph for Harding.

The winning title, These are not gentle people, is a true account of an event on a farm outside Parys in the Free State, which rocked the community and ripped families apart. It’s a courtroom drama, a profound exploration of collective guilt and individual justice, and a fast-paced literary thriller.

This book has been critically acclaimed since it came out of the printing press in 2019.

“Every so often a book comes very close to defining a nation. In this extraordinary, fast-paced and exquisitely written true story, South Africa’s brutal and divided past, its complex present and contested future collide in an explosive narrative of … race, class and human cruelty. This is In Cold Blood meets Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.,” says respected journalist Justice Malala about the book.

“The book was published in 2019 by our imprint Picador Africa. Thank you to the Sunday Times and CNA for supporting reading and authors in South Africa,” said the publisher yesterday in a statement.

Hardin g is also the author of the internationally-acclaimed The Mayor of Mogadishu,and a foreign correspondent for BBC News in South Africa. His radio and television reports have won him international recognition, including an Emmy, and awards from Britain, Hong Kong, France and Monaco.