BLACK ORCHIDS by GILLIAN SLOVO

Gillian Slovo has had a very interesting , or rather tense and harrowing, childhood which served her well in Adulthood by making her the kind of role model we can all be proud of.Her parents were activists against the apartheid regime , her Mother being assassinated by the South African secret service.Her Father came up with a solution that showed the South African Communist Party can mature from the European ones by adopting a regional priority over and above centralised dogma in the pathetic guise of internationalism.The solution was to fight the apartheid regime first and foremost , and only then agitate to get a socialist economic agenda in place in a United post apartheid modern South Africa.Hence the Communist Party of South Africa enjoys an Universal respect from all sectors of the South African Society that has never been achieved in Europe as the Communist there have had a policy of fomenting revolution rather than being a bit player in a universal mass-movement to get rid of the power elites.From Spain to France to Italy this has resulted in the Socialist agenda being at best dissembled from within the Leftist ranks or at worst being militarily annihilated for a generation or more leaving the way clear for rightists and neo-liberals.

Anyway , Gillian has written this Book about 1950s emigrants from the Colonies to the UK.A lot of it is inspired from her own exile because of the dangers of living in South Africa when her parents were targets of State repression.

The video below shows her discussing the background of the Book with David Frost.


This Guardian review gives a fairly accurate  though not entirely generous description of the Book which does lack the substance one would expect from such a politically aware Author.