Laurianne Claase

Laurianne Claase

  • Joined: December 2025
  • Articles: 28

Cape to Cairo: The Roads Less Travelled (April–August 2025)

DAY 0 | 22 APRIL 2025: Pulmonary embolism, family illness, death and a derailed Rovos Rail train notwithstanding, we caught our plane from Cape Town to Johannesburg — the only flight we have planned as we make our way north to Cairo via public transport. In the 19th century, the British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes vainly envisioned a railway from Cape Town to Cairo — fitting, then, that our off-the-beaten-track, trans-African adventure should begin with a train safari to Victoria Falls. (WhatsApp Community Broadcast)

Nosy Be: Island Hopping

MADAGASCAR | NOSY BE: Winter, in August, had Cape Town by the scruff of its neck. A climate refugee, I washed up on the shores of a tropical Garden of Eden for two weeks of island-hopping. (Publication: 'Travel Africa')

Amazon Adventure

SOUTH AMERICA | PERU | AMAZON RIVER: Sluggish ceiling fans stir the sticky heat. A picture of Jesus jostles for wall space with tortoise heads and turtle shells, a caiman skin, a puma’s pelt and mounted head. River turtle and alligator are on the menu. (Publication: 'Intrepid Explorer')

Captivating, Confounding Cuba

SOUTH AMERICA | CUBA: I’m not sure what I expected of one of the world’s last five self-styled communist countries. What I got was a whiff of fragrant Cuban leaf as the plane’s doors opened, adverts for booze and cigarettes in the arrivals hall, trolleys loaded with teetering towers of shrink-wrapped aircon units, TVs and stereos, and buxom, mini-skirted officials in khaki, sporting epaulettes and fishnet stockings. (Publication: 'Intrepid Explorer')

‘Pieces of the Puzzle: Part Two: Judgement Day’

ART PUBLISHERS | SUNDAY TIMES: 'Pieces of the Puzzle: Judgement Day' is the print sequel to 'Pieces of the Puzzle: The Killing', the first book to be published on the Oscar Pistorius and Reeva Steenkamp tragedy. The book captures, in words, images, timelines, newspaper headlines and social media posts, the media frenzy of South Africa's first televised trial. This comprehensive and full-colour account makes sense of the 'Oscar Trial', as well as the controversial judgement and answers questions that the trial did not. (ISBN: 978-1-920380-42-7)

‘Pieces of the Puzzle: Judgement Day’

KDP | AMAZON: Did the South African justice system fail Reeva Steenkamp and thousands of women like her? Following on from 'Pieces of the Puzzle: The Killing', the first book released on Oscar Pistorius and the 2013 Valentine’s Day shooting, 'Judgement Day' takes up the story from the Blade Runner’s final pre-trial appearance on 19 August 2013, to the conclusion of his trial on 21 October 2014. Set against a backdrop of police corruption, an ailing, overloaded justice system and a violent society in which women are not safe, the e-book captures all the drama of South Africa’s biggest trial. With embedded links to crime scene photos, reports, tweets, and original documents, as well as a timeline of key events, 'Pieces of the Puzzle: Judgement Day' makes sense of the ‘Trial of the Century’, as well as the controversial judgment. (ASIN B00O4OQIGS)

‘Pieces of the Puzzle: Part One: The Killing’

ART PUBLISHERS | SUNDAY TIMES: For a week that February in 2013, the world was united in an outpouring of shock, pity and disbelief that the double-amputee poster boy for the 2012 London Olympics had killed Reeva Steenkamp, his model girlfriend, on a day devoted to love. But, as in a well-plotted crime novel, here the question was not whodunit, but why?

Thanks to a partnership with South Africa's foremost weekly newspaper the 'Sunday Times', which enabled access to their image archive, the print version of 'Pieces of the Puzzle: The Killing' assembles the evidence that would feature in Oscar Pistorius's murder trial and presents it through contemporary newspaper articles, photographs, cartoons and graphics. (ISBN: 978-1-920380-32-9)

Zambezi Zvakanaka: Canoeing Zimbabwe’s Middle Zambezi River

ZIMBABWE | MIDDLE ZAMBEZI RIVER: It’s New Year’s day and we are setting out to explore 121 kilometres of the Middle Zambezi at midsummer. The Zambezi River has Zimbabwe’s highest density of hippo and Nile crocodile – 33 hippos and 6 adult crocodiles per kilometre of river. Note to self: Do not be tempted to trail languid limbs in these deceptively still waters. (Publication: 'Travel Africa')

‘Pieces of the Puzzle: The Killing’

https://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Puzzle-Pistorius-Steenkamp-Killing/dp/1920380329

KDP | AMAZON: The first in a two-part Kindle series, 'Pieces of the Puzzle: The Killing' was the first book, globally, to be published on the biggest story to come out of South Africa since the release of Nelson Mandela. The 2013 Valentine's Day shooting in South Africa shocked the world. Twitter broke the news. Olympics and Paralympics hero, Oscar Pistorius had killed girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Written in real time as events were unfolding, the e-book covers a seven-month period from the day of the shooting to the Blade Runner’s pre-trial appearance on 19 August 2013. Through the eyes of the media, of family and friends, of the authorities, the sporting fraternity and the protagonists themselves, this e-book introduces the role players, summarises the bail hearing evidence and illuminates the context of the tragedy. (ASIN: B00C4VLWIC)

Interview with Mary Ovenstone: Relationship Counsellor and Management Coach

Six women are at a party. The chip bowl runs dry. All six of the women get up, go to the kitchen and refill the chip bowl together, chatting all the while.

Six men are at a party. The chip bowl runs dry.
"Hey man, the chip bowl's getting low."
No one moves.
"I bought the chips."
"It's my bowl."
"I ate the chips."
"What did you do?"
"I … I watched TV."
Defeated, TV man goes to the kitchen – alone – and refills the chip bowl. (Publication: 'Leadership')

‘Caught Out: Cricket Match-Fixing Investigated’

https://www.amazon.com/Caught-Out-Cricket-Match-Fixing-Investigated/dp/1415200432

UMUZI | RANDOM HOUSE: Laurie A Claase's first investigative book 'Caught Out: Cricket Match-fixing Investigated' explored the international match-fixing scandal that shook the cricket world, beginning with the disgrace of South African national captain Hansie Cronje and ending with the mysterious death of the national coach, Bob Woolmer. It was long-listed for the Alan Paton Award in 2008. (ISBN: 978-1-4152-0043-8)

‘Robben Island: Out of Despair, Hope’

https://artpub.co.za/collections/books/products/robben-island-hardcover-coffee-table-book

ART PUBLISHERS: This hardcover coffee-table book traces Robben Island’s extraordinary metamorphosis from exile island to international icon. The book is replete with striking images, both historic and contemporary, eye-witness accounts and evocative detail unearthed by the author’s extensive research. (ISBN: ‎978-1-920380-23-6)

Outsider Art: A Globetrotter’s Guide

SOUTH AFRICA | NIEU-BETHESDA: The dusty road bends into a blue bowl of hills. Suddenly, in a hollow lined in yellowing poplar trees and willows, the geese have the right of way. Complete with white roses in the churchyard, Nieu Bethesda is a little piece of England hewn from the badlands of the Karoo. This once-obscure backwater is home to the Owl House, South Africa's premier example of Outsider Art – art created by driven individuals, outside of the mainstream, untrained and untainted by cultural expectations who are compelled to express their intense personal vision with whatever comes to hand. Miss Helen chose crushed glass and concrete. (Unpublished)

Pineapples and Prima Donnas: South Africa’s National Arts Festival

SOUTH AFRICA | GRAHAMSTOWN: The historic South African town of Grahamstown was founded as a British fort in 1820 during the fierce frontier wars with the Xhosa tribes in what is now the Eastern Cape. Today, Grahamstown’s (Makhanda) place on the map is assured by two things: Rhodes University and the Standard Bank National Festival of the Arts held every year in July. ('Indwe' Inflight: SA Express Airways)

Going Out in Style: The Coffin-makers of Ghana

GHANA: The Ga make up 8% of Ghana's population. Most are to be found around the city they founded, today's capital, Accra. Their burial rituals are a colourful blend of Christian and traditional beliefs. Like the Egyptians of old, the dead are buried with jewellery, money and hand-woven cloth. Their coffins tell the story of their lives. (Publication: 'Africa Environment and Wildlife')

Shark! The Whole Tooth

The lion is the undisputed King of the Jungle. The shark rules the seas. Both have toothsome reputations and, as it happens, identical preying patterns. The lion, however, has a better press. Kim Maclean, the 'Shark Lady', from Gansbaai, is doing for sharks what Disney did for lions. (Publication: 'Discover Africa')

Bushmans Kloof: An African Tale

SOUTH AFRICA | NORTHERN CEDERBERG: I knew how Cinderella felt. The morning after and the Cessna had changed back into my Exa. The private air-strip, the chef who’d cooked for Clinton, (and no, it wasn’t goose) the two thousand bottle wine cellar … gone … as though they’d never been. All was as it had been before – and yet, not quite. (Unpublished)

Thailand: When Worlds Collide

THAILAND: Amid the overt symptoms of Western influence, the infestation of Western brand names and consumer fever, there are reminders still of the old Siam that lies beneath the glossy veneer of contemporary Thailand. (Unpublished)

Kathmandu: Valley of the Gods

NEPAL | KATHMANDU: If the Himalayas are a mystical region of fabled creatures, high adventure and tales as tall as the peaks themselves, then Kathmandu is a name to conjure with; a traveller's incantation: 'Zanzibar and Timbuktu; Mandalay and Kathmandu'. (Publication: 'Marie Claire')

Thailand’s Islands

THAILAND | KO PHI PHI, KO PHA-NGAN, KO CHANG: Close your eyes and picture a snaggle-toothed horizon framing a turquoise sea and powdered beaches of white sand. (Publication: 'Sunday Life')

Worlds Apart: Taiwan’s Forgotten People

TAIWAIN | LER YE: Guidebooks unanimously proclaim Taiwan a 'bastion of Chinese culture'. The Chinese, however, were not the island's first inhabitants. Up in the mountains, as remote from the twenty-first century as they are from the hubbub of urban life, live a people whose ancestors saw the first wave of colonial settlement. (Publication: 'New Expatriate'; Image: © Luo Jikun)

Bureaucracy Blues: Teaching English in Taiwan

TAIWAN | TAINAN: I caught a brief glimpse of the island like a thumbprint on the sea, before it was swallowed up in smog. The plane was cocooned in it when we touched down so that my first impression of my new home was the dingy utility of the airport and a chalk-scrawled notice announcing the arrival of my plane. (Unpublished)

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