About the author

Barry Gilder went into exile in 1976, joined the ANC and MK, underwent intelligence training in the then Soviet Union, served in the ANC underground leadership in Botswana in the 1980s and returned to South Africa in 1991. He served the democratic government as deputy director-general of the South African Secret Service, then as deputy director-general of the National Intelligence Agency, as director-general of the Department of Home Affairs and as South Africa’s Coordinator for Intelligence. He retired from government in 2007. He is currently Director Operations at the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection. He has a BA in English and Philosophy and a Masters in Creative Writing from Wits University. He is the author of the non-fiction work Songs & Secrets: South Africa from Liberation to Governance (Hurst, Jacana 2012).