He was one of the editors of the seminal book Language and control (1979), which helped establish critical linguistics as an academic field.
His overt political compromise against apartheid led to his being imprisoned from 1964 to 1965 for collaboration with noted activist Edward Joseph Daniels; at his release he left the country for the United Kingdom, where he continued his studies at the University of Oxford.
In 1970 he was appointed a lecturer at the University of East Anglia, where he taught logic, history of science and discourse analysis.
[3] Michael Young of Consolidated Goldfields would organise seven meetings known as the Mells Park Initiative between Willie Esterhuyse and his team of politically connected Afrikaners and the ANC's led by Thabo Mbeki of which Trew attended all.
[5] In April 2019, he was awarded the Order of Luthuli by the South African government for "his contribution to the attainment of democracy and to the reconstruction of a post-apartheid society".