The time has come to delve into the story of South Africa’s turbulent history – a story of exploration and conquest, rampant growth and war, oppression and ultimately, liberation.   Captured in Time tells that story in a collection of extracts from the most illuminating, entertaining and significant works written about the country and its diverse people over almost five centuries.

The writers are settlers, explorers, administrators, missionaries, hunters, travellers, novelists, playwrights, poets and politicians. They include Jan van Riebeeck, the first Dutch governor of the Cape, whose journal is the most detailed account in history of a colony's founding; Mazisi Kunene, the Xhosa poet, who chronicled the rise of Shaka, the Zulu empire builder, in epic verse; W C Scully, who took part in the diamond rush at Kimberley that set South Africa on the path to unimaginable wealth; Jan Smuts, the Boer War general who, with Cecil Rhodes, the arch Imperialist, was one of the architects of apartheid; and Nelson Mandela, apartheid's most famous victim, who became its nemesis. The novelists include two Nobel prizewinners, Nadine Gordimer and John Maxwell Coetzee.

All have been eye-witnesses to South Africa's long journey from subjugation to freedom.

John Clare went to school and university in Cape Town and first worked as a journalist on Drum magazine and its sister weekly, Post. He was forced to leave South Africa in 1965 and not allowed back for 25 years. In Britain, he worked for The Times, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, ITN and the BBC and has won awards for his newspaper, radio and television journalism. He lives in London but his heart is in Cape Town.

ISBN: 978-1-86842-378-1 ¨ TPB ¨ May 2010 ¨ 234x153mm ¨ 600 pages ¨ R250.00