ABOUT THE NOVEL

This is a novel about the men who managed a potentially dangerous explosives manufacturing complex in the time of South Africa’s 1970’s revolution. It takes you into the manufacture of gun powder, detonators, safety fuse and dynamite and the need for safety, and the drama when safety can no longer be relied upon. It details the duties, the frustrations, the escapades and accidents of a chief executive’s life. It takes you into the lives of senior executives and their secretaries. It takes you into the development of a black trade unionist fighting serious prejudice at a time when labour laws were beginning to be modified to allow the legal function of black trade unions. It is sometimes violent in content but realistic, not gratuitous: it is sexual because it describes the behavior of men and women working in close and dramatic circumstances. It is written by someone who was there, and who presents a readable but authentic picture of the challenges of managerial existence posed by a particular manufacturing process at a specific time in our history.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Alfred spent his working life as a Human Resource practitioner in large companies and as a freelance consultant. He graduated from Wits in 1958. For some years he wrote the Manpower Brief which described the challenges HR managers faced during the ‘revolution.’  In mid-life he started to write poetry which was widely published. After his retirement he wrote extensively about Johannesburg and published several books exploring its history and current circumstances. A widow, he lives in a retirement complex in Muizenberg, close to his son’s family of grand- and great- grandchildren. His daughter’s family lives in Sydney, Australia.