Andrew Brown
Andrew Brown is an author, advocate and reservist sergeant in the South African Police Service. While a student in the 1980s he was arrested after a confrontation with police and was sentenced to prison. On appeal, the Cape High Court overturned the sentence and imposed community service instead.
Brown now practises as an advocate in the same high court that heard his appeal. Since 1999 he has also worked as a police reservist, his duties taking him from the tree-lined avenues of Rosebank, Cape Town to the squalor of Masiphumelele, Fish Hoek.
His publications are the novels Inyenzi, Coldsleep lullaby, Refuge, Solace and Devil’s harvest, as well as the non-fiction Street blues and Good cop, bad cop about his experiences as a police reservist.
He has won the Sunday Times Fiction Prize and his work has been shortlisted for the Alan Paton Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Africa Region).
Into dark water by Jeremy Vearey: a book review
2021-08-26"This is a fascinating book. But ultimately it is the victim of its own ego. It attempts too much and provides only a superficial gloss of the events that continue to intrigue and unsettle us as a nation."
Are property owners, or their security personnel, allowed to use force?
2021-07-14"Policing is a fluid, dangerous and changing situation. Not every decision will be perfect. But ultimately, everyone – even a Trump supporter – has the right to live. How much more someone seizing an opportunity to alleviate some of their poverty."