Compiled while Nelson Mandela was still in prison, 'In the Prison of His Day's is one of the earliest books about Mandela to have been published in the English language. 'This miscellany of writings was brought together to mark Nelson Mandela’s seventieth birthday. Given that prison walls have surrounded him in his seventieth year, as in his fiftieth, and given his illness later in the year, no easy celebration can be indulged.' Beginning with an editorial, it includes poems, interspersed between fiction and commentary; a moving interview with an ex-prisoner and poet is accompanied by essays in scholarly criticism. Most of the contributors are Irish, because the idea for the book originated with the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement. Contributors include: Chinua Achebe; John Banville, Samuel Beckett, Hubert Butler, Austin Clarke, Patrick Galvin, Gunter Grass, Samus Heaney, Desmond Hogan, Thomas Kinsella, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, W.J. McCormack (ed).
