Alex la Guma was a major twentieth century South African novelist. His first novel, A Walk in the Night, in 1966 brought him instant recognition as a pioneering writer on the African continent. Its ‘startling realism and accurate imagery’ drew high praise from his contemporaries. Wole Soyinka, later awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o . The critic and writer, Lewis Nkosi, likewise, compared La Guma’s intense and sombre vision of the individual in society to that of Dostoevsky. La Guma was also an important political figure. As leader of the South African Coloured People’s Organisation and a communist, he was charged with treason, banned, house arrested and eventually forced into exile. At the time of his death in 1985 he was serving as chief representative of the African National Congress in the Caribbean.

Published on the centenary of Alex La Guma’s birth on 20 February 1925, The Early Writings of Alex La Guma contains a selection of his early work as a journalist and short story writer, before he became a published novelist and was forced into exile. It provides unique cameos of South African life and politics during a turbulent time in the country’s history – the late 1950s and early 1960s, the years around Sharpeville – at the same time giving us insight into the making of a novelist. The ‘hidden’ world of Alex La Guma – material, social, emotional, political and intellectual – at a time when he was developing into a serious writer, is revealed. Many of the themes in his fiction are first encountered and developed in these early newspaper articles, providing useful material for literary scholars seeking to understand the progression of his work.

A reviewer wrote that this book, like Alex La Guma’s novels, captures not only the misery of poverty and oppression in South Africa, but also the rich song of everyday life beneath the surface. It reads easily as fiction and adds significantly to our understanding of popular culture in Cape Town, as well as to the social and political history of the city. When asked what one of his novels was about, La Guma – born and bred in District 6 – replied, ‘Ag, just about the folks back home’. La Guma peels off, as if with a scalpel, the glossy covers of the Cape’s tourist-brochure ‘liberalism’ to reveal the hard realities faced by the majority of its (non-) citizens: This is District Six talking. It is unmistakable – terse, racy, humorous, as convincing as truth.’

La Guma’s insider accounts of contemporary politics also help with the recovery of important aspects of the history of the South African liberation movement.

This is the untold story of one of the most lethal and successful soldiers of the Second World War - a highly decorated hero as well as a self-confessed rogue. In the tank war in the desert of North Africa, Major Geoff, as he came to be known, quickly showed himself a soldier of superb athleticism, unwavering will to win and almost superhuman instincts when it came to survival and outwitting the enemy. Almost incredibly he won the Military Cross on his very first day in action. He fought alongside the SAS in its early days and was with them while they were forging the ruthless fighting techniques that have made them feared throughout the world. He played a decisive role in the Greek resistance to German occupation. While in Greece he also became involved in some of the dirtiest hand to hand fighting of the war. To the men with whom he fought shoulder to shoulder he was 'Saint Geoff', to his enemies he was the devil incarnate, a man who would stop at absolutely nothing, and to his critics among the partisans he a was a womanizer, more interested in enjoying himself than killing the enemy.This is an honest account of winning the war not by fair play but by being more ruthless than your enemy. But maybe what is even more extraordinary than his soldiering - its predatory ruthlessness and amorality - is the frank account of sexual adventuring that went with it. This is how the dogs of war really behave when they are let off the leash. 'Thrilling (and even classic)... parachuted as a saboteur into Greece, where he stayed for over a year, doing heroic mischief against the Nazis, and not exactly improving the morals of the local Greek women. There's no doubting that this is the record of a hero - albeit one in the Flashman mode.' A.N. Wilson - Reader's Digest 'Major Geoff is a brave, blithe adventurer in ruthless, resourceful action, as opportunistic and vigorous in the theatre of war as in the bedroom' Times 'Former army officer Roger Field pieces together Major Geoff's unpublished journals and letters in this uncut version of World War II. Most riveting of all is the Major's account of the destruction of the Asopos Viaduct in occupied Greece - this is Boys' Own stuff at its best.' Daily Mail 'War heroes come in all shapes and sizes, but I've rarely come across any as charismatic as Geoffrey Gordon-Creed... A maverick and prodigious womaniser, it's no surprise to learn he was a friend of Ian Fleming and was reputedly one of the models for James Bond.' Mail on Sunday

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