Allister Sparks (10 March 1933 – 19 September 2016) is sadly no longer with us and will be greatly missed.  Born in Cathcart and schooled at Queens College in Queenstown he began his career in journalism at the town paper, The Representative.  According to the marketing material for his latest book, published earlier this year, The Sword And The Pen:

“he joined his first newspaper at age 17 and was pitched headlong into the vortex of South Africa¿s stormy politics. The is the story of how as a journalist he observed, chronicled and of DF Malan to the presidency of Jacob Zuma, witnessing at close range the rise and fall of apartheid and the rise and crisis of the new South Africa.  In trenchant prose, Sparks has written a remarkable account of both a life lived to its full as well as the surrounding narrative of South Africa from the birth of apartheid, the rise of political opposition, the dawn of democracy, right through to the crisis we are experiencing today”.

Allister Sparks: Man of courage, man of words: Ray Hartley’s tribute today in BDlive published by Business Day.

Allister Sparks published a number of important books, including:

  • The Sword and the Pen: Six Decades On The Political Frontier (2016)
  • First drafts: South African History in the Making (2009)
  • Beyond The Miracle: Inside the new South Africa (2003)
  • Tomorrow is another country: The inside story of South Africa’s negotiated revolution (1996)
  • The Mind Of South Africa: The Story of the Rise and Fall of Apartheid (1990)
  • Tutu: The authorised portrait (with Mpho A. Tutu) (2011)

See also Allister Sparks in Wikipedia.