Gillian Slovo

Gillian Slovo, born in 1952, is a South African novelist, playwright and memoirist, and the daughter of South African political activists Joe Slovo and Ruth First.

Her novels were at first predominantly of the crime and thriller genres, including a series featuring the detective Kate Baeier but she has since written more literary fiction. Her 2000 work, "Red Dust", a courtroom drama that explores the meanings and effects of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was made into a film released in 2004 directed by Tom Hooper and starring Hilary Swank, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jamie Bartlett. Her 2004 work "Ice Road" was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Her 1997 memoir, "Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country", is an account of her childhood in South Africa and her relationship with her parents Joe Slovo and Ruth First — both famous South Africans and major figures in the anti-apartheid struggle who lived perilous lives of exile, armed resistance, and occasional imprisonment, which ended with her mother's murder in 1982. A family memoir in the form of a feature film, "A World Apart", was written by her sister Shawn Slovo and starred Barbara Hershey.

Gillian Slovo has lived in London since 1964 and has one daughter, Cassie.

Bibliography

Novels

*"Morbid Symptoms" (1984)
*"Death by Analysis" (1986)
*"Death Comes Staccato" (1987)
*"Ties of Blood" (1989)
*"The Betrayal" (1991)
*"Looking for Thelma" (1991)
*"Façade" (1993)
*"Catnap" (1994)
*"Close Call" (1995)
*"Red Dust (2000)
*"Ice Road" (2004) [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/02/1086058907848.html?from=storyrhs Review, June 5, 2004]

Plays

*"Guantanamo : Honor Bound to Defend Freedom" (with Victoria Brittain) (2005)

Biography

* "Every secret thing : my family, my country" (1997)

External links

* [http://chiasmos.uchicago.edu/events/slovo.shtml Audio/Video recording] of a talk by Gillian Slovo on "Human Rights and the Arts: Guantanamo in the Theater" at the University of Chicago.