Allan Johns
Allan Johns was born in South Africa and has lived in England for nearly fifty years. He was a radio playwright and Chief Sub Editor of the Johannesburg Star for eleven years during the apartheid regime, having previously worked on the Sheffield Star in Yorkshire.
On his return to England, he edited The Oxford Times during the heyday of the newspaper industry. He was a leader writer and prize-winning columnist before taking early retirement and moving to Brighton.
Neither Foe nor Friend is fiction loosely based on his personal experiences during his time as a journalist on anti-apartheid newspapers before Mandela’s release from Robben Island.
His first novel, The Hit Girl, was published by Robert Hale of London in 1983.