Gillian Slovo

Gillian Slovo, born in 1952, is a South African novelist, playwright and memoirist.

Her novels are predominantly of the crime and thriller genres, including a series featuring the detective Kate Baeier. Her 2000 work, Red Dust, a courtroom drama that explores the meanings and effects of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was made into a film released in 2004 directed by Tom Hooper and starring Hilary Swank, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jamie Bartlett. Her 2004 work, Ice Road, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Her 1997 memoir, Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, is an account of her childhood in South Africa and her relationship with her parents Joe Slovo and Ruth First, both famous South Africans and major figures in the anti-apartheid struggle living perilous lives of exile, armed resistance and occasional imprisonment, with her mother being murdered in 1982.

She has lived in London since 1964 and has one daughter, Cassie.

Novels:

• Morbid Symptoms 1984
• Death by Analysis 1986
• Death Comes Staccato 1987
• Ties of Blood 1989
• The Betrayal 1991
• Looking for Thelma 1991
• Façade 1993
• Catnap 1994
• Close Call 1995
• Red Dust 2000
• Ice Road 2004

Memoirs:

• Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country 1997

Plays:

• Guantanamo : Honor Bound to Defend Freedom (with Victoria Brittain) 2005