My books

An engrossing read – flowing and funny and tender, chatty and lyrical. It casts a very shrewd eye on young love, social foibles, and getting through a certain time of life. It brought back a million memories. – Henrietta Rose-Innes

It’s a wonderful book. I absolutely loved it. – John Maytham

A balancing act between authors and best friends
A thoroughly modern romance with a sly wink at what Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility might look like if genteel young ladies crashed motorbikes, smoked a million cigarettes and took their suitors to bed. Love You Madly is about so many things we can relate to – loss, loyalty, betrayal, forgiveness, self-discovery … not forgetting the misread signs and misplaced passions essential to all the best love stories. The narrative is often hilarious yet (the authors) manage to make us care about your characters in more serious ways too: treading a line between funny and heartfelt ain’t easy. – Charlotte Bauer, Sunday Times (Read the full story here.)

A delightful tale of the 1990s, told in letters and voicemails
‘It is a sustaining and interesting read. You may laugh aloud, or weep. Some chillingly bad things happen. There are some villains with designer clothes and violent criminals with guns. They do real damage, and the responses of Mielie and Mare and their friends provide satisfying gravitas.’ – Jane Rosenthal, News24 (Read the full review here.)

Loving madly in a time when we still believed in the future
‘While we read to learn about other lives and other worlds, we also read to revisit the familiar. This story will appeal to the 40- and 50-somethings who came of age in the period in which the book is set, but also to anyone who is keen to know more about that heady time. SA was still the Rainbow Nation and multicultural, bustling Johannesburg was its personification. The air was filled with hope for the future and the sounds of Sinead O’Connor singing Nothing Compares to You and Brenda Fassie’s Vuli Ndlela. The jol happened in a wonderfully bohemian Yeoville, in its Rockey Street teeming with bars, bookstores and great Indian, Greek and Italian restaurants… For the reader, the result is a hybrid that works so well because it’s a good story with a strong plot line and the ability to turn the mundane – like laundry – into a sign of confidence that there will be another day’ – Monique Verduyn, BusinessDay (Read the full review here.)

The prose is funny, heartbreaking and luminous. It gives you fizzing in the veins and makes you want to be in love. I devoured the book in almost one sitting. A friend was visiting and kept saying: ‘You can put that down now.’ I couldn’t. – Vanessa Hilton-Barber

A novel that is bursting with colour, charm, humour and heart. Nostalgic and immediate, a heady evocation of young adulthood in the nineties. – Anna Hug

The characters carry the story along in walloping style. I found myself laughing with them (often) and teary with them too (often). I’m so sad that I had to turn that last page. – Máire Fisher

It highlights the human struggle. We are all battling something, and our struggles are all very real. – Trudy Mofutsanyana

I had such a good read. It’s a very intelligent book, really high-quality writing, and an awesome story … funny, emotional, human. – Bieke van Aggelen

The book surfaces a lot of personal things. These last three days, I have been 20 again. I could picture absolutely everything. The whole time I was reading, I was watching the remaining pages getting fewer and wishing they weren’t. – Jenny Wade

This book is magnificent! My heart contracts and sings and flies… – Karin van der Laag

More about Love You Madly / Reviews on Goodreads / Back to top

‘Combining original research, humour and a unique approach to cookbook writing, Daisy’s debut is a smash hit. Her recipes are easy to prepare and packed with flavour … beautifully photographed by Craig Fraser with the most enchanting watercolours by Victoria du Toit … Janine Basson, Manager of WWF-SASSI describes this book as a game changer. I would now not want to be without it.’ – Michael Olivier, People, Places, Wine and Food

How to cook the right fish
Too many cookbooks, right? Most of the time I’m awfully convinced that the world doesn’t need another. And then one falls into my lap which completely changes my mind. Here is a really important local book, with such a strong concept that you think ‘but why didn’t anybody do this before?’ It’s head and shoulder above most offerings (and I don’t just mean local).

Daisy Jones has done a very clever and a very good thing: she’s made a big fat beautiful recipe book starring only our country’s top 10 sustainable fish (that means green status only on the SASSI lists). It’s called Star Fish.

Unsurprisingly, it recently won Sunday Times Cookbook of the Year. There is nothing I don’t absolutely love about this book. Even beyond the piles of fantastic recipes, there is so much to inspire. I love the look and feel of it (Daisy’s quiet line-drawings in particular), and the perfectly pitched information about bad and good fishing practice, species status, and abundant little-known facts about seafood and the fishing industry. Often woven into funny anecdotes, it makes compelling (and even essential) reading. And once you start cooking, you’ll easily forget the orange status seafood (which, incredibly, most restaurants and supermarkets still sell in abundance).

Who needs eco-nightmare prawn and salmon when you can busy yourself with mackerel chutney, yellowtail carpaccio, salt and pepper squid, creamy mussel soup? What Daisy Jones has done so well is to make it not only easy, but downright sexy, to go green. My absolutely favourite book this year.’ – Andrea Burgener, The Times

‘We were overwhelmed when 54 entries rolled in. But what were we looking for? Something that was more than just another recipe book. Did it feature beautiful photographs and good design? Did the recipes reflect the idiosyncrasies of South African food and the personality of the author? Were they accessible, topical and written with an eye on sustainability, seasonality and provenance? Was it a book you wanted to rush out and buy? Star Fish, by Daisy Jones, ticked all the boxes and was unanimously judged the winner. The judges were impressed with the way Jones tackled the issue of sustainable South African seafood. Her well-researched book made a serious topic readable, while imparting knowledge and delightful recipes from farmed kabeljou to everyday “blikvis”.’ – Hillary Biller, Sunday Times Food Weekly

‘One of the first must-have books to find its way into my new home … [a] remarkable book …’ – Sumien Brink, Taste

Any cook worth their salt should have this book on their shelf.’ – Jenny Kay, The Star

‘The books that are most in demand show how food-aware the world is becoming. So many people are changing their game and, in the case of quiet green warriors like Daisy, wanting to change the world.’ – Libby Doyle, Sunday Times

‘With Star Fish, Daisy Jones encourages everyone to go green with their seafood choices … her recipes help make the decision easier. You can judge Star Fish by its cover because it’s everything it claims to be.’ – Debashine Thangevelo, The Sunday Independent

‘A fabulous cookbook … about so much more than recipes.’ – Sandra Parmee, FairLady

‘Not just a collection of tasty recipes someone knocked up in their kitchen … a unique cookbook underpinned by an environmental imperative’ – Matthew Burbidge, Mail&Guardian

‘ … scrumptious recipes … delectable dishes to enjoy with your family. In this fresh take on ocean-friendly fish, Daisy Jones gives us recipes that are simple, delicious and contemporary. This book is for home cooks who want to eat more fish and want to do the right thing. There are family favourites and crowd-pleasers featuring fresh fish and shellfish, but there are also bold flavours here to complement oily, salted, smoked fish … Switching to green fish is an adventure.’ – Child Magazine

‘Healthy, delicious, budget-friendly dishes’ – Sunday Times Food Weekly

‘[Daisy Jones’s] bid to educate readers on the plight of the oceans is punctuated with humour and fascinating information. Besides that, the recipes at the end of each chapter are very tempting. An abundance of useful information includes how to buy a snoek and make samosas out of it.’ – Wellness Warehouse Magazine

More about Star Fish