This book recounts the 1950s in South Africa - a decade of optimism and hope that ended, tragically, with the massacre at Sharpeville - as seen through the microcosm of Drum, a magazine produced in Johannesburg for black readers. The Drum writers - Henry Nxumalo, Can Themba, Bloke Modisane, Todd Matshikiza, Casey Motisi - lived by the precept live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse. These black writers on Drum - who were later joined by Lewis Nkosi and Nat Nakasa - were responsible for a range of investigative journalism, the best of which is reproduced here, alongside tributes from friends and colleagues including Anthony Sampson, Nadine Gordimer, Trevor Huddleston and Walter Sisulu.