Books by Richard Steyn

The remarkable story of Winston Churchill and Jan Smuts, two hugely influential figures, who, though they met each other first as enemies, enjoyed a friendship that remained unbroken for almost half a century.

LOUIS BOTHA, THE FIRST PRIME MINISTER of the Union of South Africa, was a brilliant Boer general who won significant victories over the British in the early stages of the Anglo-Boer War. When the weight of the British arms eventually overwhelmed the Boers, Botha and Jan Smuts encouraged peace between English and Afrikaner and led the four South African colonies into Union in 1910.Botha was a big-hearted and generous man in his dealings with all. In 1914, he had to put down an Afrikaner rebellion over the Union’s participation in the Great War. The experience broke his heart, as many of the rebels were old Anglo-Boer War comrades. At Versailles in 1919, representing South Africa, he pleaded unsuccessfully for magnanimity towards a defeated Germany. Globally respected, Botha and Smuts operated as a double act before Botha’s untimely death in August 1919.Richard Steyn’s recent books, Jan Smuts: Unafraid of Greatness and Churchill and Smuts: The Friendship, have won him a loyal readership. In Louis Botha: A Man Apart, he again masterfully brings to life a great South African.

Jan Christian Smuts was soldier, statesman and intellectual, one of South Africa’s greatest leaders. Yet little is said about him today even as we appear to live in a leadership vacuum. Afrikaner sonder grense is a re-examination of the life and thought of Jan Smuts. It is intended to remind a contemporary readership of the remarkable achievements of this impressive soldier-statesman. The author argues that there is a need to bring Smuts back into the present, that Smuts’ legacy still has much to instruct. He draws several parallels between Smuts and President Thabo Mbeki, both intellectuals much lionised abroad and yet often distrusted at home. This book is a highly readable account of Smuts’ life. It also examines a number of overarching themes: his relationships with women, spiritual life, intellectual life and his role as advisor to world leaders. Politics and international affairs receive the lion’s share, but Smuts’ unique contributions to other fields - for example, botany - are not neglected. Afrikaner sonder grense does not shy away from the contradictions of its subject. Smuts was one of the architects of the United Nations, and a great champion of human rights, yet he could not see the need to reform the condition of the African majority in his own country.   

Jan Christian Smuts was soldier, statesman and intellectual, one of South Africa''s greatest leaders. Yet little is said about him today even as we appear to live in a leadership vacuum. Unafraid of Greatness is a re-examination of the life and thought of Jan Smuts. It is intended to remind a contemporary readership of the remarkable achievements of this impressive soldier-statesman. The author argues that there is a need to bring Smuts back into the present, that Smuts'' legacy still has much to instruct. He draws several parallels between Smuts and President Thabo Mbeki, both intellectuals much lionised abroad and yet often distrusted at home. This book is a highly readable account of Smuts'' life. It also examines a number of overarching themes: his relationships with women, spiritual life, intellectual life and his role as advisor to world leaders. Politics and international affairs receive the lion''s share, but Smuts'' unique contributions to other fields - for example, botany - are not neglected. Unafraid of Greatness does not shy away from the contradictions of its subject. Smuts was one of the architects of the United Nations, and a great champion of human rights, yet he could not see the need to reform the condition of the African majority in his own country.