Oliver Hill was, and is, a maverick. Born to an Establishment South African family - his grandfather was a De Beers director, his father a Rand Mines director - his future was pre-determined; a top school (Bishops), a first class degree at Wits University, on to Oxford, and then the steady climb up the Anglo-American corporate ladder. However, his parents recognised the rebel in Ollie and sent him to America where, with a first class degree in chemistry,...