Product details
- ISBN 9781844086306
- Format: Paperback
- Weight: 138g
- Dimensions: 135 x 200 x 12mm
- Publication Date: 02 Dec 2010
- Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
- Publication City/Country: London, GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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'Her life and her death remain a beacon to all who love liberty' NELSON MANDELA
An unforgettable account of defiance against political terror by one of South Africa's pioneering anti-apartheid activists.
'In prison you see only the moves of the enemy. Prison is the hardest place to fight a battle.'
117 Days is Ruth First's personal account of her detention under the iniquitous '90-day' law of 1963. There was no warrant, no charge and no trial - only suspicion.
This sparsely written and unique record tells of her experiences of solitary confinement, constant interrogation and instantaneous re-arrest on release - lightened by humorous portraits of governors, matrons, wardresses and interrogators, seen as the tools of the police state. This is the story of the war of nerves that ensued between First and her Special Branch captors-a work that remains a classic portrait of oppression and the dignity of the human spirit.
Ruth First was a journalist and academic and, along with her husband Joe Slovo, strongly active in the anti-apartheid movement. She escaped South Africa in 1964. Her interests in politics and the struggle against apartheid are reflected in both novels, 117 Days and The Barrel of a Gun.
In 1982, she was working at a university in Mozambique. She opened a letter bomb addressed to her by the South African security police which is where First was assassinated.
