Young Man with the Red Tie: A Memoir of Mandela and the Failed Revolution, 1960-63

Bob Hepple, a 29-year-old lawyer, is making his hazardous escape from South Africa into Bechuanaland, the neighbouring British Protectorate, in order to avoid being called as a state witness. He has acted as Mandela’s legal adviser and has been a lifeline to the underground leaders, with whom he was arrested on 11 July 1963 at Liliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, and detained without trial. He has managed, in Mandela’s words about him, to ‘outwit the enemy’, and now faces the bitter revenge of Dr Yutar, the state prosecutor.

In this memoir of these dramatic events, Bob Hepple throws fresh light on the character of Mandela and other leaders and on the controversies surrounding the emergence of the South African Communist Party and its ‘secret’ resolution in December 1960 to begin the armed freedom struggle.