Gillian Slovo

Standard Name: Slovo, Gillian
Married Name: Gillian Metcalf
After an extraordinary upbringing in 1960s South Africa, daughter of white Communist activists who operated underground, GS moved to England. She has published thrillers, literary novels, documentary or verbatim plays, and a memoir. Her strongest work concerns political struggle against misuse of power.
Colour photo portrait of Gillian Slovo at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, August 2009. Looking at the camera, she is wearing a navy shacket with her arms crosses in front of her. The background is dark teal.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Reception Nadine Gordimer
Her accounts of the ceremonials surrounding the award were, said Gillian Slovo , hilarious.
Slovo, Gillian. “My hero: Nadine Gordimer”. theguardian.com.
Textual Features Kamila Shamsie
The novel is dedicated to Gillian Slovo , whom KS chose to read an early draft of it because of her work on Another World: Losing Our Children to Islamic State for the National Theatre
Textual Production Nadine Gordimer
Walder discerned in it a coded homage to George Bizos and Bram Fischer , who defended Nelson Mandela .
Walder, Dennis. “Nadine Gordimer obituary”. theguardian.com.
Gillian Slovo , who grew up in these circles, recognized the family: their heroism and their...
Textual Production Kamila Shamsie
Other contributors included Deborah Moggach , Gillian Slovo , and Alice Walker .
Textual Production Sue Townsend
Some of the plays performed in this season had historical settings. Those dealing with the present day were accompanied by verbatim recordings made by Gillian Slovo from interviews conducted by contemporary women politicians.

Timeline

9 February 1955
The first 150 families out of about 60,000 inhabitants of Sophiatown and other African communities close to the centre of Johannesburg, South Africa, were evicted under the Native Resettlement Bill, with heavy police presence, and...
June 1976
Demonstrations in the Black township of Soweto, near Johannesburg, were met with police brutality.