E-mail us a comment on this writer. (Comments may be edited and used on this website.) About the author Jeremy Cronin is Deputy Minister of Transport since 2009. Politically active since the 1960s, he was jailed for seven years. Inside (1983), his first collection, reflects on this period of his life. His more recent collections, Even the Dead (1997) and Inside and Out (1999), react in part to South Africa’s dramatic transition. He is renowned as a performance poet and has regularly participated in political rallies and readings. Jeremy Cronin’s other publications include:    •   The Ideologies of Politics, co-edited with A de Crespigny, 1975    •   30 Years of the Freedom Charter (with Raymond Suttner 1986)    •   50 Years of the Freedom Charter (forthcoming, with Raymond Suttner) From Jeremy Cronin “… I was sentenced in 1976 to seven years imprisonment on 17 counts of ‘terrorism’. The common law prisoners in Pollsmoor Prison were very impressed with all of the ‘sabotation’ for which I was evidently responsible. I didn’t dare tell them that the 17 acts were the production and circulation of 17 illegal editions of underground newsletters. They would have been entirely unimpressed. During my seven years incarceration in Pretoria Maximum Security my first wife, Anne-Marie, died. Many of the poems in Inside, my first collection, deal with this bereavement. … In the course of the 1980s, in the midst of a general popular cultural ferment, I performed my prison poetry to mass audiences in township halls, at funerals for fallen comrades, and at political rallies in township sports stadiums – it was a frightening, exhilarating and learning experience. During the two states of emergency between 1985 and 1987 I narrowly evaded detention, in the first case by jumping out of a back window with the police banging on the front door. … I was one of the lucky exiles to return soon after the unbanning of the ANC and SACP. I was based in Johannesburg for 10 years, through the 1990s, and participated in the historic multi-party negotiations between 1991 and 1993.” Title published by Umuzi More Than a Casual Contact On Jeremy Cronin’s earlier work Cronin’s Inside is one of those rare first volumes (they happen once in a generation) that at one go establishes a fully-blown career in literature. — Star Tonight Cronin shows, once again, that ‘political’ poetry can be humorous and have widespread appeal. The biting, and often tongue-in-cheek, character of this poetry is exactly what the ‘new’ South Africa needs. Cronin succeeds in posting a clear reminder that we can laugh and, at the same time, be serious about life. — Nadine Gordimer (on Even the Dead) In South African poetry, there is nothing to compare with this …The precise and subtle phrasing, the brittle beauty of the imagery, the sparkling humour and the meticulous articulation of sensations, reflections and responses, imprints it as exceedingly memorable poetry. — Andries Oliphant (on Even the Dead) home   writers   books   contact   buy   rights all content © Umuzi, Random House Struik this website designed and maintained by Guanaco.co.za