I thoroughly enjoyed this book for its forthright humour and honest expression of frustration about prominent South Africans, past and present. The author is erudite, with a razor sharp wit. The overwhelming majority of his accusations are well merited, and exceptionally well substantiated. While exceptions to this so exist, he manages to justify his views reasonably, and appealingly, without recourse to boring legalistic prose.

Indeed, it is difficult to find grounds on which to criticise the content or the writing of this book. However, criticism is much easier when taking stock of which South Africans Parker has targeted. He includes two Zulu kings without including a single Xhosa king. In fact, no historical Xhosa personalities are represented at all, despite the fact that there are no lack of candidates. One only has to think of Nonquase, who brought her people to their knees with a prophesy that encouraged them to squander their grain and slaughter their cattle in preparation for a day in in 1857 when a hurricane was to blow the white colonialists into the sea.

Space in a book of this nature is limited and Parker has selected material suitable for his target audience. He has chosen the population of urbanised Gauteng as his target and his book reflects the significance of the Zulu people in the zeitgeist of a city that traditionally holidays in Natal. The colourful and beautiful provinces of the Western and Eastern Cape are underrepresented, which by no means makes Fifty People any less appealing or amusing. ( )

Alexander Parker initially wanted to call this book 50 People Who Tried Their Damndest to Stuff Up South Africa But Couldn’t Quite Manage It in the End: the expanded title explains how we have minor pimples like Steve Hofmeyr or Khanye Mbau rubbing shoulders with major carbuncles such as Verwoerd and Dingaan.

The alphabetical biographical entries are a satisfying mixture of hard fact and witty comment, perfectly offset by the Zapiro caricatures. Nicely balanced between education and entertainment, this book is the perfect gift – especially for number 5 on the list ‘The Bitter Expat’, although it would be wasted on Number 27, ‘The Minibus Taxi Driver’. ( )