Liz McGregor is a journalist and the author of Khabzela: The Life and Times of a South African and, most recently, Touch, Pause, Engage! Exploring the heart of South African Rugby.
While researching Touch, Pause, Engage!, I came to understand a bit about the impact of the inner life on the performance of a great athlete, so I was riveted by Andre Agassi’s Open, which recounts the struggles and self-doubt that stalked every win. I thought it set a new benchmark for sporting autobiographies.
I wrote an obituary on Albertina Sisulu and re-read chunks of her daughter-in-law, Elinor Sisulu’s biography, Walter & Albertina Sisulu: In Our Lifetime. Most poignant were the passages on how incredibly hard the state made it for her simply to be a good mother.
I’ve caught up with Damon Galgut’s In a Strange Room and Donve Lee’s An Intimate War, both very fine reflections on the dance of distance and closeness between the self and the other. - Cape Times