Mandela: The Authorised Biography

Anthony Sampson, who has known Mandela since 1951, was given unprecedented access to his subject, including extensive conversations with him, and inspection of all his letters through 27 years in prison, his original unpublished jail autobiography and the official prison records. He has unearthed for the first time British and American diplomatic and intelligence reports on his political influence; and he has been able to interview hundreds of colleagues, friends and family – including Mandela’s three wives – to provide candid insights into his domestic life. He thus provides a quite new picture of Mandela’s private and public life, and the tragic tension between them.