Gillian Slovo (born 15 March 1952) is a South African-born writer who lives in the UK. She was a recipient of the

Golden PEN Award The Golden PEN Award is a literary award established in 1993 by English PEN given annually to a British writer for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". The winner is chosen by the Board of English PEN. The award has previously been ...

Early life and education

Gillian Slovo was born on 15 March 1952 in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa, a daughter of

Joe Slovo Yossel Mashel "Joe" Slovo (23 May 1926 – 6 January 1995) was a South African politician and Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Com ...

and

Ruth First Heloise Ruth First OLG (4 May 1925 – 17 August 1982) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar. She was assassinated in Mozambique, where she was working in exile, by a parcel bomb built by South African police. Family and ...

. Her family moved to London in 1964, as political exiles. Her family is

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. Slovo attended the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, graduating in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in the

history and philosophy of science The history and philosophy of science (HPS) is an academic discipline that encompasses the philosophy of science and the history of science. Although many scholars in the field are trained primarily as either historians or as philosophers, there ...

, before working as a journalist and television producer.

Career

Slovo's novels were at first predominantly of the crime and

thriller genre Thriller is a genre of fiction with numerous, often overlapping, subgenres, including crime, horror, and detective fiction. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving their audiences heightened feelings of suspe ...

s, 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 A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state ac ...

, was made into a film of the same name released in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

, directed by

Tom Hooper Thomas George Hooper (born 5 October 1972)''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005''. 5d: 2485. is a British-Australian filmmaker. Known for his work in film and television he has received numerous accolades includ ...

. Slovo's

work ''

Ice Road An ice road or ice bridge is a human-made structure that runs on a frozen water surface (a river, a lake or a sea water expanse).Masterson, D. and Løset, S., 2011, ISO 19906: Bearing capacity of ice and ice roads, Proceedings of the 21st Int ...

'' was shortlisted for the

Orange Prize for Fiction The Women's Prize for Fiction (previously with sponsor names Orange Prize for Fiction (1996–2006 and 2009–2012), Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction (2007–08) and Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction (2014–2017) is one of the United Kingdom's ...

. The novel incorporates real events (the death of

Sergey Kirov Sergei Mironovich Kirov (born Kostrikov; 27 March 1886 – 1 December 1934) was a Russian and Soviet politician and Bolshevik revolutionary. Kirov was an early revolutionary in the Russian Empire and a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russ ...

) with a fictionalised rendering of life during the

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

. With

Victoria Brittain Victoria Brittain (born 1942) is a British journalist and author who lived and worked for many years in Africa, the US, and Asia, including 20 years at ''The Guardian'', where she eventually became associate foreign editor. In the 1980s, she wor ...

, Slovo wrote the play ''Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom'', which was staged internationally in 2004.

Memoirs

Slovo's 1997 memoir, ''Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country'', is an account of her childhood in South Africa and her relationship with her parents

and

– both

South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded on 12 February 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), and tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by t ...

leaders and figures in the

anti-apartheid struggle The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-white population who were oppressed by the policies ...

who lived perilous lives of exile, armed resistance, and occasional imprisonment, which culminated in her mother's assassination by South African forces in 1982. A family memoir in the form of a feature film, '' A World Apart'' (1988), was written by her sister

Shawn Slovo Shawn Slovo (born 1950) is a South African screenwriter, best known for the film '' A World Apart'', based on her childhood under apartheid. She is the daughter of South African Communist Party leaders Joe Slovo and Ruth First. She wrote the scree ...

and starred

Barbara Hershey Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including Wester ...

English PEN presidency

Slovo was the 25th president (2020–2013) of the English Centre of

International PEN PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...

, the worldwide writers fellowship. In 2012, she took part in a PEN International delegation to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

to protest against the killing of journalists in that country, alongside presidents of other PEN Centres and internationally prominent writers.

Political views

In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, Slovo signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North (UK Parliament constituency), Islington North since 1983. Now an Independent ...

's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few." She is a supporter of the boycott of Israeli cultural institutions. She was an original signatory of the manifesto "Refusing Complicity in Israel's Literary Institutions".

Bibliography

Source

Novels

Kate Baeier mysteries

*''Morbid Symptoms'' (1984) *''Death by Analysis'' (1986) *''Death Comes Staccato'' (1987) *''Catnap'' (1994) *''Close Call'' (1995)

Other novels

*''Ties of Blood'' (1989) *''The Betrayal'' (1991) *''Looking for Thelma'' (1991) *''Façade'' (1993) *'' Red Dust'' (2000) *''

'' (2004) *''Black Orchids'' (2008) *''An Honourable Man'' (2012) *''Ten Days'' (2016)

Plays

*''Guantanamo : Honor Bound to Defend Freedom'' (with

) (2005) * ''

The Riots ''The Riots'' is a play created by Gillian Slovo from spoken evidence, which explains and evaluates the events that took place during the 2011 England riots. The play is written in the style of verbatim theatre using interviews from politician ...

Biography

*
Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country
' (1997)

Awards and honours

*2004

shortlist for ''Ice Road'' *2013

References

External links

Contemporary Writers: Gillian Slovo

Gillian Slovo discusses ''Red Dust''
on the BBC ''

World Book Club ''World Book Club'' is a radio programme on the BBC World Service. Each edition of the programme, which is broadcast on the first Saturday of the month with repeats into the following Monday, features a famous author discussing one of his or her ...

''
Audio/Video recording
of a talk by Gillian Slovo on "Human Rights and the Arts: Guantanamo in the Theater" at the University of Chicago.
Interview
of Gillian Slovo by

Anthony Clare Anthony Ward Clare (24 December 1942 – 28 October 2007) was an Irish psychiatrist and a presenter of radio and television programmes. He was the presenter of the radio series ''In the Psychiatrist's Chair'', an interview and discussion show, w ...

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

'
''In the Psychiatrist's Chair''
(originally broadcast August 1997), based in part on her biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Slovo, Gillian 1952 births Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Jewish dramatists and playwrights Living people Presidents of the English Centre of PEN South African dramatists and playwrights South African Jews South African memoirists South African women dramatists and playwrights South African women novelists White South African people Women memoirists Writers from Johannesburg

Gillian Gillian may refer to: Places * Gillian Settlement, Arkansas, an unincorporated community People Gillian (variant Jillian) is an English feminine given name, frequently shortened to Gill. It originates as a feminine form of the name Julian, Julio ...