On July 11, 1963, a seemingly harmless dry cleaning van drew up outside a rural farm near Johannesburg, South Africa. Within seconds, heavily armed police had burst out and arrested the entire high command of the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Together with the already imprisoned Nelson Mandela, they were put on trial and charged with conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government by violent revolution. Their expected punishment was death. In this compelling book, their defense attorney, Joel Joffe, gives a blow-by-blow account of the most important trial in South Africa’s history, vividly portraying the characters of those involved and exposing the astonishing bigotry and rampant discrimination faced by the accused, as well as showing their incredible courage under fire.

Joel Joffe is a Labour peer in the House of Lords. Born in South Africa, he was educated at the University of Witwatersrand (BCom, LLB 1955), and worked as a human rights lawyer 1958–65, including at the infamous 1963-4 Rivonia Trial, representing Nelson Mandela. Later he moved to the United Kingdom and worked in the financial services industry, setting up Hambro Life Assurance with Sir Mark Weinberg, as well as in the voluntary sector. He was associated with Oxfam in various roles between 1982 and 2001, including being its chair from 1995 to 2001. In 2006 he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from the University of Bath. He was awarded the CBE in the 1999 New Year Honours, and made a Life peer on 16 February 2000, being raised to the peerage as Baron Joffe, of Liddington in the County of Wiltshire, where he lives.