Gillian Slovo

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.

Milestones

15 March 1952
GS was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Slovo, Gillian. Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country. Little, Brown, 1997.
104, 141
“Writers. Gillian Slovo”. British Council. Literature.
17 February 1997
GS moved to a new publisher, Little, Brown , for her memoir Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country.
Blackwell’s Online Bookshop.
Blackwell
19 October 2000
GS published with Virago her novel about the South African Truth Commission , Red Dust.
Blackwell’s Online Bookshop.
1 May 2004
The verbatim play or docu-drama Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, by GS and Victoria Brittain , opened at the Tricycle Theatre in London. It appeared in print at about the same date through Oberon Books .
“Gillian Slovo”. doollee.com.
Brittain, Victoria, and Gillian Slovo. Guantanamo. Oberon Books, 2004.
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Biography

Birth and Family

15 March 1952
GS was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Slovo, Gillian. Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country. Little, Brown, 1997.
104, 141
“Writers. Gillian Slovo”. British Council. Literature.

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