Renowned journalist, historian, and editor Allister Sparks passed away on Monday after a short illness. J. BROOKS SPECTOR had last seen him just a few weeks earlier at the memorial service of yet another towering figure, advocate Jules Browde, and the news of Sparks' passing has come as a great shock. Spector contemplates Sparks' place in South Africa's modern history.
Allister Sparks was a fixture of South Africa's media royalty for more than half a century - and one of the proudest exponents of the media's crucial role in his nation's history. In his final published book, a personal memoir entitled The Sword and the Pen that was released in March 2016, Sparks attempted to define himself in the context of the history of his country and the part of that world he knew best and which he had learnt to savour early in life.
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