WILL STONE fact-checks the colourful life of Ozzy Osbourne
Fighting the elephants’ corner
BOB NEWLAND recommends an environmental thriller that uses as background the troubling realities of South Africa and Ireland
Cambodian Customs Department seized more than 3 tonnes of Ivory from Mozambique in December 2016
[Andyb3947/CC] 
JAMES CROSSLEY applauds a lucid biography of the German radical preacher who reemerged as a hero in the GDR
Prizes all round: the Bard hands plaudits to the Miners Gala, OT&JC, Joe Solo, Black Sabbath’s frontman and the Lionesses
Star cartoonist JAMIE BRITTON is in awe of a graphic novel of epic proportions that explores class, religion and globalisation via the strange cultivation of Ginseng in the US Midwest
GUILLERMO THOMAS is intrigued by a history of the Middle East that demonstrates how promising post colonial beginnings were snuffed out by Western imperialist interests
MARIA DUARTE recommends the intricate study of a high-performance and highly dysfuntional German family
The Elephant Conspiracy
by Peter Hain
Muswell Press £14.99
MORNING STAR readers may be familiar with Peter Hain’s previous novel The Rhino Conspiracy. This sequel is equally if not more thrilling.
The author shares his love and expertise on the fight against apartheid both as a native South African, exiled as a child with his parents, and as chair of the Stop the Seventies Tour Committee. He continues to support the fight to overcome the apartheid legacy as honorary vice-president of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA).
As secretary of state for Northern Ireland in the Blair government he also had an intimate understanding of The Troubles and fills this novel with realistic but exciting events firmly based in the current South African struggle against corruption and state capture.
More from this author
BOB NEWLAND, a former London Recruit, recommends the extraordinary memoir of struggle veteran Kingsley Mamobolo
BOB NEWLAND relishes a fascinating read as well as an invaluable piece of local research
BOB NEWLAND welcomes a clear-eyed account that counts the human cost of the Irish Republican struggle for both sides
BOB NEWLAND admires the tactics of a punchy exhibition that advocates awareness of Third World debt its neocolonial injustice
