"Patrick Smith, his research-Sherpa Juliet Amissah and the team at the authoritative London-based newsletter Africa Confidential have produced a superb slice of political life in a much-misunderstood region. Apart from its use as a reference tool and contact manual, this book distils four turbulent decades through thumbnail sketches of vital players ... this is a definitive political snapshot of fin-de-siècle Southern Africa." Andrew Manley, Times Literary Supplement