This Festival of Books can't be shelved!

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BUSINESS NEWS - Residents of and visitors to the Garden Route are in for a stimulating and vibrant three days, when they can hear from and interact with renowned South African writers and thought leaders during the 2025 Garden Route Festival of Books.

Tickets are now on sale and attendees can join the conversation on a wide variety of fascinating topics.

There is feasting aplenty for the mind and heart but the body has not been forgotten at this book festival and the three evening events feature delicious food from the team at the famous île de païn.

The entire Book Festival takes place on popular Thesen Island, Knysna and visitors can park, or book a room for the weekend and buy a discounted Festival Pass to attend all the daytime events.

Thursday evening, 6 March kicks off the Book Festival, with a BIG Conversation. A panel of specialist journalists and Oyama Mabandla (author of Soul of a Nation), explore the essence of what it means to be a South African.

Friday focuses on Business, Politics and Economics, with-high profile thought leaders discussing ideas around their latest books and hot South African topics. The evening offers an opportunity to mingle at the dinner table with writers and journalists and to enjoy a delicious menu and conversation around featured new cookbooks.

Saturday starts with crime, both real-life and fictional, and includes a sample to ~~die~~ live for as Tannie Maria comes to Knysna, then explores adventure with the popular Jack Pembroke series set in WWII and finishes with that quintessentially South African Saturday afternoon pastime - sport, going deep inside the Bok Story.

Back by popular demand, the Book Festival concludes on Saturday night with a Greek feast!

Thursday 6 March Highlight

Opening event: The BIG Conversation with South African thought leaders Ferial Haffajee, Oyama Mabandla (Soul of a Nation) and Moeletsi Mbeki. Light supper included.

Friday 7 March Highlights:

Internationally renowned Professor of Economics, expert on African Economic History and explorer of new ideas and insights, Prof Johan Fourie in conversation with the legendary Mervyn King, the accountant who changed the world. (Our Long Walk to Economic Freedom).
Pieter du Toit, best-selling author, journalist and political commentator talks on his latest book The Super Cadres; TJ Strydom, top-selling author and business journalist tells the quintessentially South African story of Capitec.
Professor Mervyn King, who transformed the global business landscape and continues to guide companies worldwide, is in conversation with Ray Mahlaka, award-winning journalist, specialising in business, finance, and economics. The Corporate Revolutionary is a new book on the inspirational life of Mervyn King.
Alan Knott-Craig, Life Lessons: How to Fail and Win, and Raymond Ledwaba, The First-Generation Founder, share their experiences as South African entrepreneurs and their lessons in life.

Saturday 8 March Highlights:

Award-winning true-crime podcaster, Nicole Engelbrecht, Killer Stories, psychologist and crime writer, Jo Macgregor, Dark Whispers, and Juliet Mnqueta, If the Dead could talk, (authors resident in Plett and Knysna), take a behind-the-scenes look at writing crime in SA and offer insight into killers, cops, casualties and survival in real and fictional crime settings.
Sally Andrews brings fictional heroine Tannie Maria, everyone’s favourite amateur detective and agony aunt who solves crimes while sharing heart-warming wisdom and recipes.
Justin Fox shares the stories behind his best-selling WWII military adventure books starring popular hero Jack Pembroke.
Khanyiso Tshwaku discusses the new book he co-wrote, Twice the Glory. The Making of the Greatest Bok Team in History, going deep inside the Bok story, to relive each nail-biting moment of recent years.
Costa Ayiotis chats with Penny Smythe about his coming-of-age memoir; an insight into the Greek immigrant experience, in a poignant and often comic tale of a family trying to navigate South Africa in the 1960s and 70s. Matriarchs, Meze and the Evil Eye.

The Book Festival is organised by the team from Pam Golding Properties Knysna and Plett and all profits go directly to KET (Knysna Education Trust) sponsoring the education of individual children and assisting early childhood development in the Garden Route.

By buying tickets and supporting this event you help to raise up the next generation of readers and thinkers. Scholars in uniform R20 for tickets at the door.

Pam Golding, Knysna and Plett