Student Comrade Prisoner Spy - Bridget Hilton-Barber
Student Comrade Prisoner Spy
The Remarkable True Story of Resistance, Detention, and Eschel Rhoodie’s Secret Agent
Bibliographic Specifications
- Title: Student Comrade Prisoner Spy
- Author: Bridget Hilton-Barber
- Publisher: Zebra Press (An Imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa), Cape Town
- Publication Date: 2016
- ISBN-13: 9781770228009
- Edition Details: First Edition, First Impression. Standard Softcover Trade Release.
- Binding: Original publisher's premium heavy-gauge illustrated flexible card wrappers.
- Physical Format: Octavo (8vo), 224 pages. Includes a central photographic gallery of private resistance archives and period political ephemera.
- Language: English
Official Condition Report
- The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
- Exterior / Wraps: The covers are clean and unblemished, with vibrant colours and sharp edges. Exhibits only minor handling-related wear along the corner tips and spine extremities. Spine is uncreased and square.
- Interior: Very Good Plus (VG+). Text block is clean and tightly glued to the binding. Pages are clean, free of foxing, pencil notes, price stickers, or creased corners.
Synopsis & Historical Value
Student Comrade Prisoner Spy is a gripping, deeply personal memoir exploring the darkest corners of late-Apartheid espionage. In the early 1980s, Bridget Hilton-Barber was a radical student activist in Grahamstown, leading protests and enduring detention without trial. Years later, she discovered a shocking betrayal: her close friend, fellow activist, and roommate, Olivia Forsyth, was a deep-cover spy for the notorious Security Branch. This book offers a raw look at the paranoia, psychological trauma, and deep betrayals that defined underground resistance networks.
Author Profile: Bridget Hilton-Barber
Bridget Hilton-Barber is an acclaimed South African author, travel journalist, and former editor of SAA’s Sawubona magazine. She has written extensively for prominent national newspapers and lifestyle publications. Her career began in the alternative press during the turbulent States of Emergency in the 1980s. Her background as both a victim of state detention and a trained journalist allows her to write about South Africa's recent political history with an exceptional balance of emotional depth and analytical clarity.
