THE SWORD AND THE PEN, six decades on the political frontier

608pp., illus., paperback , Johannesburg, 2016

Journalist Allister Sparks's autobiography, in which he also discusses how he has observed, participated in and recorded South Africa's struggle, from the birth of apartheid through the first democractic elections, to the present moment.

Allister Sparks was born in 1933 at Cathcart in the Eastern Cape. He started working as a reporter in 1951 and became editor of the Rand Daily Mail in 1977. In 1962-63 he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship to Harvard University. He has been South Africa correspondent for The Washington Post, The Observer, NRC Handelsblad and The Economist. In 1992 he founded the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ). He is the author of "The Mind of South Africa", "Tomorrow is Another Country", "Beyond the Miracle" and "Tutu: the authorised biography" with Mpho Tutu. He lives in Johannesburg.