Heidi Holland

Infobox journalist


name = Heidi Holland
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birth_place = Southern Rhodesia
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occupation = Journalist, Author
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ethnic = White
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credits = Author of "Dinner with Mugabe"
Freelance writer for The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, International Herald Tribune, The New York Times and The Guardian.
Author of "The Colour of Murder"
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Heidi Holland is a South African-based Zimbabwean journalist and author who has been involved in the journalism industry for over 30 years. She has worked as a freelancer writer on publications such as The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, International Herald Tribune, The New York Times and The Guardian and has also worked on research projects for British television documentaries. She is the author of various book such as the recent "Dinner with Mugabe" an account of her meetings with Robert Mugabe. Previously she released "The Colour of Murder" a South African-based book on the Van Schoor family and their murder trials it's members faced. She has also released a book based on the history of South Africa's ruling-party "The Struggle:A History of the African National Congress".

Books

"Dinner with Mugabe"

The title "Dinner with Mugabe" relates to an encounter between Holland and Mugabe in 1975 when a friend brought him to her house for a secret dinner as he was about to flee the country to wage a guerrilla war. Yet Holland was significant as a white journalist to have secured a 2 1/2-hour interview with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in December 2007. It took 18 moths to secure the interview. In the book Holland explores the transformation of the man she met in 1975 with his present state. She also looks at his relationships with those such as his first wife, Sally, Lord Soames, Rhodesia's last British governor; Denis Norman, a white farmer who held several portfolios in his early governments as well as with the former Rhodesian Premier Ian Smith. She also questions the president on controversial issues such as Gukurahundi and land reform in Zimbabwe. Several excerpts of the book have appeared in the international press and it is published by Penguin South Africa. [The Economist 19 March 2008 cite web|url=http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10875586|title=The making of a monster| ] [The Guardian 23 March 2008 cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/23/zimbabwe1|title=Face to face with a lonely tyrant bent on vengeance| ] [The Washington Post 14 March 2008 cite web|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/13/AR2008031304286.html|title=In His Own World of Denial| ] [The Daily Telegraph 01 July 2008 cite web|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/profiles/2213974/Zimbabwe-What-makes-monster-Robert-Mugabe-tick.html|title=Zimbabwe: What makes monster Robert Mugabe tick? | ] [The Sunday Times (South Africa) 01 March 2008 cite web|url=http://www.thetimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Insight/Article.aspx?id=717837|title=The angry little boy who showed them all| ] [The Independent 24 June 2008 cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/features/young-mugabe-the-making-of-a-despot-852789.html|title=Young Mugabe: The making of a despot| ] [The Guardian05 April 2008 cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/05/zimbabwe|title='We still love the royal family'| ]

"The Colour of Murder"

In 2006, Holland released a South Africa-based true crime investigation of racism and violence in "The Colour of Murder: One family's horror exposes a nation's anguish ". In the book she explores the controversial family dynamics and racial politics of the Van Schoor family, a white South African family. She focuses on the patriarch Louis Van Schoor,a former East London security guard who is alleged to have shot over a hundred black people during apartheid. Then there is his daughter Sabrina Van Schoor, who made friends in the coloured community (to her parents disapproval) as a child and later gave birth to a coloured child, Tatum. in 2001 she ordered a hitman to kill her mother, Beverley on the grounds that she was a racist. [The Citizen 14 September 2006 cite web|url=http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=24070,1,22|title=Family dynamics| ] [The Guardian 24 October 2004 cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/oct/23/southafrica.weekend7|title=Blood ties| ]

"The Struggle"

"The Struggle:A History of the African National Congress" was released by George Braziller publishing company in April 1990. Holland explores the peaceful and violent protestations of the political party against racial discrimnation. She also looks at the communist ties of the party as well as the roots of apartheid ideology. The book received favourable reviews, with The New York Times citing it as a 'concise' and 'informative' history of the political party. [The New York Times 18 March 1990 cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CEFD61330F93BA25750C0A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1|title=Mandela's Party| ]

References

Audio and video

*cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2008/mar/26/robert.mugabe.heidi.holland?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews| title=Heidi Holland speaks to Robert Mugabe| publisher=The Guardian | date =2000-09-23
*cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/nightwaves/pip/51wdx/| title=Isabel Hilton talks to Heidi Holland | publisher=BBC | date =2008-06-03
*cite web|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DypHltNlTWM| title=Heidi Holland reads from Dinner With Mugabe| publisher=Youtube|date =2008