Life and Death of A Rock 'n Roll Sailor

In January 2015, Diane Coetzer’s beloved brother-in-law disappeared with his two crew when their yacht was caught in a cyclone in the Indian Ocean. More than a decade later, she is ready to tell the story of Anthony John Murray. In The Life and Death of a Rock ’n Roll Sailor, Coetzer recounts the desperate search for the missing sailors and the truth, racing against time and fighting against bureaucracy. What followed was a journey through the very best and worst of human nature, as three grieving families clung to one another in the face of an unspeakable tragedy and ambiguous loss. Yet this is a story as much about life as it is about death. As Diane retraces the hunt for answers, she uncovers Anthony’s wild, untethered, rock ‘n roll life both on land and in the place where he felt most himself: at sea. Through his voice recordings and personal writings, he rises from the depths – restless, reckless and deeply in love with the ocean that both defined and claimed him. Readers who are drawn to true stories of the sea, complex humans and navigating grief will find themselves deeply anchored in these pages. The Life and Death of a Rock ’n Roll Sailor weaves together an intimate duet between Diane and Anthony in which mourning and memory keep a sailor alive long after the storm.

Diane Coetzer is an award-winning writer and journalist. Over three decades, she has worked as an anti-apartheid reporter, South African correspondent for Billboard, and a founding editor of Rolling Stone South Africa. Her work has appeared in Sunday Times Magazine, Mail & Guardian, more recently while living in the Netherlands, the Daily Maverick and her own Substack. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of the Witwatersrand.