extremely rare,very good condition

Steve Biko was the forty sixth person to die in security police detention in South Africa. And for the first time, the inquest revealed full and horrifying details of how political detainees are treated. What exactly happened to Biko in room 619 is known only to his interrogators. But from a close reading of the inquest proceedings, given in this book, it is possible to reconstruct the events and identify the likely culprits. The inquest verdict exonerated the police, shocking the world but demonstrating once again the inherently ruthless and oppressive nature of the Apartheid state.

Partner of one of the most infamous anarchists of her time, Johann Most, Helene Minkin joined the anarchist movement after emigrating from Russia in 1888 with her father and sister. Framed as a reaction and corrective to Emma Goldman’s Living My Life, Minkin’s memoir provides a unique account of turn-of-the-century anarchism and immigrant life in the United States. Published in the Yiddish-language newspaper Forverts in 1932, this is its first English translation.

The internment diary of Austrian composer Hans Gal (1890-1987) with a biographical study of his life and career. Includes a CD of first recordings of three of his works from the period

Draper, Hal

This is the story of Lucas Radebe and Mark Fish, two of South Africa's greatest footballers who play for English teams. The story ranges from the early years of the two players, one black and one white, from football played with rolled-up old socks on the dusty veld, to the glamour and passion of the English Premiership and the Word Cup.

This is very much not an academic book, though it is, as one would expect, throughout infomed by Steiner's vast and polyglot reading, from the classics through to contemporary science, across fiction, poetry, theology and philosophy It is rather in a genre of its own, littered with entertaining anecdotes, and the closest we will get to an autobiography.

Finished just weeks before his death, George Rochberg's eloquent memoir offers a detailed look at his fruitful life as a composer, publisher, and teacher of music. The volume traces a life immersed in music, with early study under George Szell and Gian Carlo Menotti and later long-term collaborations with the Concord Quartet and commissions for major orchestras and opera companies. Rochberg takes care to describe the intellectual and aesthetic changes that led him down certain paths as a composer, often challenging the conventions of the day. Reflecting on music, aesthetics, colleagues, and the life of the creative mind, Rochberg's memoir captures not only the spirit but also the intellectual climate of the second half of the twentieth century. Rochberg's life as a composer was marked by an ongoing search for his artistic place between tradition and the avant-garde, with an extensive oeuvre comprising over one hundred works including chamber ensembles, string quartets, symphonies, solo pieces, songs, and an opera. In addition to his importance as an American composer, he was also a central figure in academia and publishing. He served as chair of the University of Pennsylvania's music department, and as an editor and director of publications at the Theodore Presser Company, he helped marshal the company into one of the premier American musical publishing houses. Through the course of the book, Rochberg reveals the thought processes that led him in unexpected directions as he pursued the independent path of his career. This is the story of a creative mind developing, at times struggling, and constantly growing.--Publisher's description.

George Melly is nudging 80. He is still swinging and singing, fly-fishing, flirting, and for now just playing at senility. But he walks very slowly these days. He's losing control over his bladder, and his bowels. He no longer, being quite deaf, enjoys noisy parties. He's been seriously ill once, and not quite well often. And he's constantly being probed and tinkered with, at St Mary's Hospital: like an old car in and out of the garage. Sex has walked out on him, but Irish Whiskey, in only slightly diminished quantities, remains a good friend. This remarkably cheerful book is his diary of it all. A darkly funny, frank, and larger-than-life account about how he feels to be growing old and irresistibly slowing down.

This book is an autobiographical account of George Mandler--born in 1924--who grew up in a middle class Jewish family in Vienna. It details the fears and attempts to find a safe haven when Austria was invaded and absorbed into Nazi Germany in 1938, followed by Mandler's escape to England and residence in a small boarding school. The threat of the holocaust and reaction to anti-semitism are explored and the author describes the life of an emigre youth group run by a branch of the Austrian communist party. Drafted in 1943, Mandler is trained in military intelligence and ends up as a front line interrogator with the 7th army in Germany. The training and function of military intelligence and the role of German and Austrian refugees in it are described for the first time in detail. Military intelligence and counter-intelligence work in post-war Germany follows, including the evacuation of a scientific establishment before the arrival of the Soviets. Returning to New York in 1946, Mandler begins his college training at New York University and the University of Basel, Switzerland. This is followed by graduate training in psychology at Yale and a first position at Harvard for seven years. Highlights of the period include a short episode of peripheral involvement in a Soviet spy scandal. After five years at the University of Toronto, Mandler is given the opportunity of a lifetime--to start a department at the prestigious new San Diego branch of the University of California. He describes the process of building a department and a university in the context of the 1960s, as well as academic life and actions during the turbulent 60s and 70s. Mandler's successful career as a writer and researcher in psychology is described in lay language, as is the professional/scientific bifurcation of the field. The final chapter comments on and describes current academic life and problems.

A heart-rending, wartime story of a young Czech exile's lonely struggle to grasp the meaning of life and love.