Having already been short-listed for the University of Johannesburg Prize, IN A DIFFERENT TIME by Peter Harris has been awarded the prestigious Sunday Times Alan Paton Prize for non-fiction.  IN A DIFFERENT TIME, published by the Umuzi imprint of Random Struik, is also shortlisted for the Booksellers' Choice awards, an influential prize voted for by the nation's booksellers who nominate the books that they most enjoyed reading, selling or promoting over the past year.  The judges have described it as 'an astonishing and important book, brilliantly written.'

Peter Harris was the lawyer for the Delmas Four, a group of ANC foot-soldiers trained as a assassination unit, who were captured after re-infiltrating the country of their birth in the 1980s. In his first book, Peter Harris has powerfully and movingly told their story - a story he has wanted to write for ten years - with the force, detail and conviction that only an insider of such insight and integrity could bring to the page. At the same time as we follow the drama of the men's capture, and the subsequent twists and turns of their epic trial, police hit squads operate in deadly secrecy - and the resolution of this page-turning book is shocking, heart-rending and deeply thought-provoking.

An important historical record, IN A DIFFERENT TIME is also a gripping story, which, as South African radio personality and book club queen Jenny Crwys-Williams says, 'reads like a John Grisham novel, but is all true.''  It was named Jenny & Co's Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and Best Book of the Year 2008.

Film rights have been sold to Two Oceans by Julian Friedmann, and Isobel Dixon of Blake Friedmann is representing worldwide rights, including translation, on Umuzi's behalf.

'A dark chapter in our history brilliantly brought to light.'  Ivan Vladislavic

'Fast-paced and absorbing, the detail intriguing and the book beautifully written. ' - City Press

'An important and riveting work.'   - The Witness

See here for an interview with Peter Harris about writing the book.

See here for a report on the prize.

See here for Peter Harris's acceptance speech.

See here for Peter Harris's page on the Umuzi site.