Comrade Hannah

By Vincent Gray

A lipstick lesbian who is a radical feminist joins the communist party not knowing that her every move is under constant surveillance, but she is saved from arrest by the security police by the intervention of the most unlikely guardian angel.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vincent Gray
• Release date: Sep 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370711864

Vincent Gray

As a son of a miner, I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. I grew up in the East Rand mining town of Boksburg. I matriculated from Boksburg High School. After high school, I was conscripted into the South African Defence Force for compulsory national military service when I was 17 years old. After my military service, I went to the University of the Witwatersrand. After graduating with a BSc honours degree I worked for a short period for the Department of Agriculture in Potchefstroom as an agronomist. As an obligatory member of the South African Citizen Miltary Force, I was called up to do 3-month camps on the 'Border' which was the theatre of the so-called counter-insurgency 'Bush War'. In between postgraduate university studies I also worked as a wage clerk on the South African Railways and as a travelling chemical sales rep. In my career as an academic, I was a molecular biologist at the University of the Witwatersrand, where I lectured courses in microbiology, molecular biology, biotechnology and evolutionary biology. On the research side, I was involved in genomics, and plant and microbial biotechnology. I also conducted research into the genomics of strange and weird animals known as entomopathogenic nematodes. I retired in 2019, however, I am currently an honorary professor at the University of the Witwaterand and I also work as a research writing consultant for the University of Johannesburg.

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Comrade Hannah

By Vincent Gray

Copyright © 2017 Vincent Gray

Smashwords 2017 Edition

First Edition

This book is a work of fiction. All the characters developed in this novel are fictional creations of the writer’s imagination and are not modelled on any real persons. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

ISBN: 9781370711864

For Melodie and Ruth

1

After I had completed my MSc in Zoology at Wits at the end of 1977 I decided to do my PhD at the University of Cape Town (UCT). I drove down to Cape Town from Hotazel in my old white 1961 VW Beetle which my dad had rebuild for me. It was the same car that I had had since my first year at university. It was also the car which got me to Gobabeb in Namibia for my honours research project in 1976. In spite of my continuous clashes with my brother over politics I had taken over Malcolm’s olive green army steel trommel (steel trunk) curtsy of the South African Defence Force (SADF). In fact I took possession of the steel trunk without his permission and theoretically it was still the property of the SADF. It was clearly marked as the property of the SADF. The steel trunk had been gathering dust in the garage and was filled with Malcolm’s old army kit from the time when he had done his military service after he matriculated from high school. Under the apartheid regime national military service was compulsory for all white males in South Africa. I unpacked all his old army stuff which included a helmet, a rifle cleaning kit, and webbing into a cardboard box. After cleaning