This is the first scholarly biography of Sidney Bunting. His life offers a unique perspective on the British Empire, illustrating the complex social networks and values that were carried across the world in the name of empire. The lawyer son of renowned Wesleyan social activists, Bunting was radicalised in South Africa. He was a founding member of the Communist Party and campaigned for black emancipation. Allison Drew draws on archival material which has only recently become available, including the Bunting family papers, records of Bunting's Oxford years, trial transcripts from Bunting's legal and political career, and the Comintern archives.

"'Unquestionably this very readable volume will remain the authoritative scholarly study of Sidney Percival Bunting, one of South Africa's most remarkable communist pioneers.'"