Ruth Schechter is the story of a brilliant writer and social critic. Hirson explores her eventful life in Cambridge, New York and Cape Town, as she moved between academia and a Jewish milieu which was often conservative but on occasion rather radical. As an adult, she lived most of her life in Cape Town where she encountered powerful establishment figures, and powerless coloureds living in District Six. Among the personalities she met were Frederick Bodmer, Mohandas K Gandhi, Lancelot Hogben, Laurence van der Post, and her eventual husband, Benjamin Farrington. She became a particularly close associate of Olive Schreiner. This is a story that touches on the development of a dissenting South African community. Based on original research, Hirson has drawn together an engaging and original historical biography.