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including extensive conversations with him, and inspection of all his letters through 27 years in prison, his original unpublished jail autobiography and the official prison records.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 Mandela’s 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 new picture of Mandela’s private and public life, and the tragic tension between them.

Sampson, who passed away at age 78 in December 2004 only days after completing this update, was a well-known journalist in London and the author of several best-sellers including Anatomy of Britain and The Seven Sisters, a former trustee of the Guardian and Observer and chairman of the Society of Authors. He has remained closely involved with South Africa - which he revisited every year.

‘He had never edited anything before and knew nothing of Africa. But the deep end into which he threw himself kept him immersed. No wonder he was asked to write Nelson Mandela’s biography. And no wonder his telling of those times kept memory of the 1950s alive when so much else was dying.’
Extract from the obituary of Anthony Sampson in The Guardian Tuesday 21 December 2004

Anthony Terrel Seward Sampson was born on 3 August 1926 and was to become one of the greatest journalists and writers on contemporary affairs of the twentieth century.

He was educated at Westminster School, joined the Royal Navy at the end of the Second World War and later continued his education at Christ Church, Oxford. Feeling a sense of alienation from post-war Britain he seized the chance to work in South Africa on a new black magazine called Drum. And so began a love affair with South Africa and a friendship with Nelson Mandela that lasted until his death in December 2004.

He later returned to the United Kingdom to join the editorial staff of The Observer, where he worked from 1955 to 66 and while there he wrote the unique and legendary Anatomy of Britain. Sampson wrote a number of bestsellers that dissected political and business power in the 1960s and 70s, and went on to become the official biographer of Nelson Mandela at the end of the twentieth century.

Sampson never missed an opportunity to return to South Africa, which was in many ways his spiritual home. In 1964 he attended the Rivonia trial and was invited to advise Mandela on his famous speech from the dock - and gave Mandela, who was facing the risk of execution and 26 years in jail, the African National Congress salute in the court.

‘… one of the few journalists and authors who can shape the mind of a generation … a truly distinctive and special man.’ Professor Peter Henessy (Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at the University of London)