Anthony Sampson began his career as a journalist in South Africa
after a brief post-war spell as a naval officer and a degree in
English at Oxford University. He became editor of the new black
magazine Drum in Johannesburg in 1951, where he remained for four
years, establishing it as the leading black literary and political
periodical in South Africa, and getting to know most of the
prominent black leaders including Luthuli, Mandela, Sisulu and
Tambo. He wrote his first book, Drum: An African Adventure, about
his experiences.
He returned to London in 1955 to join the Observer newspaper as
assistant to the editor, where he remained on the staff, with
frequent assignements in South Africa, until 1961 when he wrote his
landmark book Anatomy of Britain, which sold 200,000 copies in
hardback in the UK alone. He followed this with The New Europeans
which was translated in twelve languages, and became a full-time
book-writer and broadcaster, travelling widely. He then wrote
successive books about multinational corporations, including The
Seven Sisters and Arms Bazaar (both translated into twenty
languages), Black and Gold(an account of the relations between
business and apartheid) and Company Man, followed by a
much-acclaimed international TV series The Midas Touch about the
global marketplace.
In 1985-6 he returned to South Africa to write Black and Gold:
Tycoons, Revolutionaries and Apartheid. He was then banned from
returning until January 1990, when his revisit coincided with
Mandela’s release. Since then he has returned frequently, and is
now on the international board of Independent Newspapers, the
biggest newspaper group in South Africa.
Anthony Sampson has been chairman of the Society of Authors and a
member of the Scott Trust which owns the Guardian and the Observer.
He lives in London and Wiltshire with his wife Sally, a magistrate
with whom he has two children.
‘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 ‘Warmly to be welcomed, not least because it is more substantial and revealing than Mandela’s bestselling autobiography…a great leap forward in our understanding of a man who is both enigmatic and private…Anthony Sampson has carried out his difficult commission with skill and sensitivity’ Independent ‘This will be the last word on Mandela for years to come…it will be hard to improve upon this crowning conclusion to Sampson’s long career as a loving and expert chronicler of South Africa’ Evening Standard ‘Measured, detailed without a moment of tedium, incisive in its perceptions and at times, profoundly moving’ Observer
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