Gillian Slovo
Gillian Slovo | |
|---|---|
 Slovo in 2011 | |
| Born | 15 March 1952 |
| Occupation | Novelist, playwright |
| Parents | Joe Slovo, Ruth First |
| Relatives | Shawn Slovo, Robyn Slovo (siblings) |
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.
Early life and education[edit]
Gillian Slovo was born on 15 March 1952 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her family moved to London in 1964, as political exiles.[1] Her family is Jewish.[2]
Slovo attended the University of Manchester, graduating in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in the history and philosophy of science, before working as a journalist and television producer.[1]
Career[edit]
Slovo's novels were at first predominantly of the crime and thriller genres, 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, was made into a film of the same name released in 2004, directed by Tom Hooper.[citation needed]
Slovo's 2004 work Ice Road was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. The novel incorporates real events (the death of Sergey Kirov) with a fictionalised rendering of life during the Siege of Leningrad.[citation needed]
With Victoria Brittain, Slovo wrote the play Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, which was staged internationally in 2004.[3]
Memoirs[edit]
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 Joe Slovo and Ruth First – both South African Communist Party leaders and figures in the anti-apartheid struggle who lived perilous lives of exile, armed resistance, and occasional imprisonment, which culminated in her mother's assassination by South African forces in 1982.[citation needed]
A family memoir in the form of a feature film, A World Apart (1988), was written by her sister Shawn Slovo and starred Barbara Hershey. [citation needed]
English PEN presidency[edit]
Slovo was the 25th president of the English Centre of International PEN, the worldwide writers fellowship. In 2012 she took part in a PEN International delegation to Mexico to protest against the killing of journalists in that country, alongside presidents of other PEN Centres and internationally prominent writers.[4]
Political views[edit]
In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, Slovo signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn'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."[5][6]
Bibliography[edit]
Source[7]
Novels[edit]
Kate Baeier mysteries[edit]
- Morbid Symptoms (1984)
- Death by Analysis (1986)
- Death Comes Staccato (1987)
- Catnap (1994)
- Close Call (1995)
Other novels[edit]
- Ties of Blood (1989)
- The Betrayal (1991)
- Looking for Thelma (1991)
- Façade (1993)
- Red Dust (2000)
- Ice Road (2004)
- Black Orchids (2008)
- An Honourable Man (2012)[8]
- Ten Days (2016)[9]
Plays[edit]
- Guantanamo : Honor Bound to Defend Freedom (with Victoria Brittain) (2005)
- The Riots[10]
Biography[edit]
- Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country (1997)
Awards and honours[edit]
- 2004 Orange Prize for Fiction shortlist for Ice Road[11][12]
- 2013 Golden PEN Award[13]
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Gillian Slovo Biography – eNotes.com". eNotes. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ "Jews in the News:Sarah Michelle Gellar, Julianne Margulies and Jake Gyllenh | Tampa Jewish Federation". www.jewishtampa.com. Retrieved 14 September 2019.
- ^ "Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom". Timeline Theatre. Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
- ^ Slovo, Gillian (3 February 2012), "'In Mexico, Reporters are Hunted Like Rabbits'", Author Author, The Guardian.
- ^ "Letters | Vote for hope and a decent future". The Guardian. 3 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ Proctor, Kate (3 December 2019). "Coogan and Klein lead cultural figures backing Corbyn and Labour". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
- ^ "Gillian Slovo - Literature". literature.britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ^ Clark, Clare (20 January 2012). "An Honourable Man by Gillian Slovo – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ^ Doughty, Louise (10 March 2016). "Ten Days by Gillian Slovo review – a powerful response to the English riots". the Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ^ "Burn Britain Burn: Gillian Slovo's The Riots". the Guardian. 22 November 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
- ^ Brace, Marianne (12 June 2004). "Andrea Levy: Notes from a small island". The Independent. London. Retrieved 7 June 2009.
- ^ Ezard, John (6 January 2005). "Whitbread novel prize is double for Levy". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 7 June 2007.
- ^ Bury, Liz (3 December 2013). "Gillian Slovo wins Golden PEN award". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 May 2014.
Further reading[edit]
- Blackwell, Geoff; Hobday, Ruth (31 October 2017). 200 Women. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. pp. 178–179. ISBN 9781452166582. OCLC 1007173093.
External links[edit]
- Contemporary Writers: Gillian Slovo
- Gillian Slovo discusses Red Dust on the BBC World Book Club
- 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 on BBC Radio 4's In the Psychiatrist's Chair (originally broadcast August 1997), based in part on her biography
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
- 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
- Slovo family