After the Party, by Andrew Feinstein (Jonathan Ball): Feinstein, white and Jewish, was a proud ANC MP in the first democratic parliament. Then came the arms deal. British and German investigators suspect bribes of more than R1 billion were paid.

Feinstein learned the hard way that loyal ANC members do not talk publicly about issues the party does not want aired, and finally resigned.

Now based in London, he has written this book "because I believe it is in the best interests of South Africa to know about both the many triumphs and some of the more shameful episodes in our short democratic history".

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Jam Every Other Day, by Emmaleen Kriel (Oshun): I loved Kriel's first book Close the Door Softly Behind You, about her experiences as a 50-something carer and housekeeper in England, where she worked, among others, for Sir Edward Heath.

Here she describes being mother to half a dozen rambunctious children as well as her own childhood in war-torn Amsterdam and Mozambique.

It's not a sexy book, she warns, "you'll find no fleshy thighs or surprised nipples here".

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The Autobiography, by Eric Clapton (Century/ Random House): The blurb on the dust jacket calls this book "the memoirs of a survivor". Born illegitimate in 1945, he grew up believing his mother was his sister.

The guitar was his solace, and as a member of Cream at just 21 in 1966 he became a superstar. He succumbed to drugs and alcohol.

He has survived divorce, the deaths of friends like Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon, and that of his four-year-old son, Conor. Here he tells his own story.

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Not Quite World's End, by John Simpson (Pan Macmillan): Every generation worries about what they read in the newspapers, says veteran BBC journalist John Simpson.

Looking back over his 40 years in journalism around the world he concludes that the end of the world is not nigh. There are horrendous problems, of course, like debt and globalisation and global warming, but "at some stage quite soon … today's problems will be obliterated by tomorrow's". Comforting? I'm not sure.

With acknowledgement to Vivien Horler and Cape Argus.