Black and White

In November 1978 the world was shocked by reports from Guyana of the mass suicides of the members of the People's Temple and their leader, Jim Jones. Two weeks later, Shiva Naipaul arrived in Jonestown to investigate the roots of that tragedy. But BLACK AND WHITE is far more than a journalistic account of a horrifying event. It is an examination by one of our major writers of the corrupt and corrupting ideologies that enabled the People's Templeto flourish. Drawing on interviews, documents and his own perceptive observations, Naipaul traces the ideas generated in California in the '60s in the white radical and Black Power movements and their evolution in the '70s into the preoccupation with 'self-realisation', ecology and 'life-style'. And he brings the eye of a brilliant novelist to one of the most blood-chilling occurrences of recent years. 'Mr Naipaul gives a superb description of this atmosphere... unforgettable' NEW STANDARD' A grim and funny book' THE TIMES