Xafrica Volume 1: Letters from the Southern Rift

South African born Sandy Dacombe Ferrar's ability to make dry facts entertaining grew through the medium of radio. As producer and presenter of Talking of Nature and documentaries on subjects such as Mapungubwe, Modjadji -The Rain Queen, The Okavango Delta and others for Radio South Africa, later SAfm, she learned to develop a writing style that harnesses facts to vivid word-pictures. 

This not only provided great job satisfaction, but it also gained her two journalism awards for conservation and environmental awareness. In 1997 she wrote "An Alberton Album," a short history of Alberton for the Alberton Town Council, published by Corporate Communications, Erasamuskloof. Between 1999 and 2003 Sandy wrote a weekly series of stories and letters about Malawi for the WildNet.Africa website. She authored "Malawi, the warm heart of Africa" with photographs by Frank Johnston, published by Central Africana, Blantyre, 2002. With her husband Tony she authored "Inside Mpumalanga: a guide for guides" published by the Institute for Tourism and Leisure Studies, North West University in 2004. Currently she does freelance editing and assists her husband Tony in his ecological and wildlife consulting work.