Swimming with Cobras

Arriving from high society England to rural South Africa in the turbulent 1960s, Rosemary Smith is out of her depth. But when faced with the startling reality of her new home, Rosemary joins the Black Sash—the white women-led anti-Apartheid organization of which she would one day become national vice president—thrusting her into the interior workings of a country struggling violently towards democracy.

Pulled from her journals charting decades of justice work, this emotional and engrossing memoir is a reexamination of the ally, a rare insight into South Africa’s democratic transition, and the inspiring true story of a community of women who set a new standard for civic responsibility and quietly changed the landscape of an entire nation.