Confessions of a Voice Artist by Malcolm Gooding, with Angus Douglas & Tim Sandham

If you grew up in South Africa in the ’60s or ’70s and listened to Squad Cars on Springbok Radio, or if you were a fan of the popular music programme Going Gooding on English Radio, or even if you can just recall those famous cigarette advertisements for Stuyvesant at the movies or Lexington on the radio, you are guaranteed to enjoy this book.

It is the story of Malcolm Gooding, the ‘man with the golden voice’ as many called him. When you read his Confessions of a Voice Artist, you realise that it was indeed his voice that carried him – not only through a more than 50-year career in broadcasting, but which still sustains him to this day. It is his voice that opened many doors and afforded Malcolm a rich and interesting life filled with encounters, many of which he shares in this delightful memoir.

Reading his book and later listening to the audio version also voiced by him, I was taken on a journey back to ‘old South Africa’ and the dynamics at work at the time, some of which take one’s breath away. Apartheid, censorship at the broadcasting houses, white privilege, oppression, the Border War, and society’s slow awakening to the long road our country had to walk towards democracy and equality for all.

What I enjoyed about his memoir is not only his self-deprecating humour – which guarantees laugh-out-loud moments – but also his confessions about his own privilege, his reflection and the insights he offers into his values, perceptions and views on the political system of those days.

It’s a light-hearted read filled with entertaining anecdotes about various South African icons and leaders of the day. In Malcolm’s charming, self-effacing manner he regales and entertains the reader or listener with stories from his long career that started as a 21-year-old announcer at the SABC in 1967. Since then he has mostly worked as a freelancer, voicing thousands of radio and TV commercials for myriad brands including Dunhill, Mercedes Benz, Famous Grouse, Castle Lager, Standard Bank and Metro Cinemas. His voice also graces many National Geographic and Discovery Channel documentaries, and he hosted and presented a variety of television programmes, including the popular Criminal Minds and Crimes Uncovered SA.

In his book, Malcolm reaffirms his talent for storytelling as he recounts, among many other tales, his so called ‘Mandela moment’, which took place at the 1995 Rugby World Cup Final when he was tasked with introducing Nelson Mandela who had to present the Webb Ellis Cup to Francois Pienaar.

In writing Confessions of a Voice Artist, Malcolm was assisted by two fulltime writers, Angus Douglas and Tim Sandham who, among other accolades, achieved success with various theatrical productions that dealt with the life and works of Herman Charles Bosman.