John Blake to publish Fighting for Mandela

John Blake is set to release the autobiography of South Africa ambassador and "freedom fighter" Priscilla Jana entitled Fighting for Mandela.

In the book, Jana, a former human rights lawyer, details her fight against apartheid and her representation of political prisoners.

At one point, she represented every single political prisoner on Robben Island - an island west off the coast of Cape Town where Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years behind bars. 

Born in Durban, South Africa, and of Indian origin, Jana faced discrimination all her life. When she was a child, her family were evicted from their home, which was subsequently bulldozed because it was in "a white area".

Jana by night was also part of an underground cell that fought to bring down the government and for which she became a "banned person". After Mandela was freed, however, she was elected as a member of South Africa’s first democratic government. 

John Blake Publishing secured world rights direct from the authors, after John Blake commissioned the book himself. No agent was involved.

The book, witten by Jana with Barbara Jones, is due for release in hardback under John Blake Publishing's Metro Books imprint on 25th February, priced £20.