
Mandela
The Authorised Biography
Anthony Sampson(Author)
HarperCollins (Publisher)
Published on 15. May 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
704 pages
978-0-00-638845-6 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
`A magisterial, detailed and invaluable account of one of this century's greatest figures ... it is hard to believe that a better biography will ever be written.' Justin Cartwright, Sunday Telegraph
The life of Nelson Mandela, from the personal and the global perspective, is one of the epic stories of the twentieth century. It is also one of the most inspiring. Twenty years ago, Mandela was an almost forgotten figure languishing in jail on Robben Island; today, as he leaves office as President of South Africa, he is one of the most widely admired leaders on earth.
The book provides many new insights into Mandela's story and sheds new light at every turn on the moral dilemmas and personal choices of both Mandela's private and public life.
Anthony Sampson has known Mandela from the early 1950s, and conducted hundreds of interviews with colleagues, family and friends as well as prison warders and Afrikaner ex-cabinet ministers, and he is the first person to have examined prison archives in South Africa and diplomatic papers in Great Britain, the United States and South Africa. He was given unprecedented access to 27 years' worth of unpublished correspondence from prison, as well as to other unpublished writings including Mandela's original, suppressed, autobiography.
The life of Nelson Mandela, from the personal and the global perspective, is one of the epic stories of the twentieth century. It is also one of the most inspiring. Twenty years ago, Mandela was an almost forgotten figure languishing in jail on Robben Island; today, as he leaves office as President of South Africa, he is one of the most widely admired leaders on earth.
The book provides many new insights into Mandela's story and sheds new light at every turn on the moral dilemmas and personal choices of both Mandela's private and public life.
Anthony Sampson has known Mandela from the early 1950s, and conducted hundreds of interviews with colleagues, family and friends as well as prison warders and Afrikaner ex-cabinet ministers, and he is the first person to have examined prison archives in South Africa and diplomatic papers in Great Britain, the United States and South Africa. He was given unprecedented access to 27 years' worth of unpublished correspondence from prison, as well as to other unpublished writings including Mandela's original, suppressed, autobiography.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Product notice
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
24 b/w plates (24pp), (3 x 8pp B&W), Index
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 43 mm
Weight
515 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-638845-6 (9780006388456)
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Person
In the late 1950s Anthony Sampson spent four years in Johannesburg editing the black magazine Drum, an experience which led to a lifelong fascination with South African politics. He was on the staff of the Observer in the 1960s, and since then has written a series of major bestselling books, all translated into over 15 languages. His Anatomy of Britain was a pioneering classic.