Robert McBride, an intriguing yet divisive character

Read the DWG section on my rather unique relationship with McBride, straddling my friendship with his sisters and one of his Magoos victims' only-child daughter. Here's City Press' take on his suspension this week: Robert McBride suspended

Remnants of SA nuclear weapons programme worry the USA

The Washington Post has written about a long stalemate between US and SA officials as the prior try to convince the latter to surrender SA's stockpile of highly-enriched uranium (HEU): US unease about SA highly enriched uranium stockpile. DWG tells the tale of the acquisition and eventual dismantling of nukes by the apartheid regime, though certain "dual-use" elements, like the HEU stockpile - sufficient to build six Hiroshima-yield nukes - remain under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) supervision and have been used to produce medical isotopes - a huge foreign-exchange earner for SA. The US is concerned about the HEU stockpile's security after a narrowly-foiled robbery at Pelindaba in 2007. I had argued in DWG that dual-use electronic relays and detonators were inadequately supervised and in 1998 - five years after the nuke programme was declared dead by FW de Klerk - caused a premature detonation east of Pretoria that killed four workers.

DWG sales figures so far

I received the sales figures for Drinking with Ghosts from our sales agents and my publisher says "it looks rather good for a new title in its first year. The total sales to date: 819 copies. We have also submitted it to Exclusive Books for the yearly sale promotion Homebru, where they showcase local books and we hope this will give it a further boost."