This is the story of South Africa's transformation from apartheid oppression to non-racial democracy, told by a man who played a unique part in it. Peter Hain's childhood was spent in South Afica under apartheid. His parents were harassed, jailed, banned and finally, forced into exile. In Britain, Hain became one of the leaders of the international struggle to defeat apartheid, returning in 1994 to witness the birth of a new South Africa, full of hope. This is a testimony to all those who fought to defeat what he describes as "absolute tyranny".