Fred Bridgland

Fred Bridgland is a veteran British foreign correspondent and author who covered the Angolan civil war and the Border War for Reuters as an Africa correspondent in the 1970s and then for the Sunday Telegraph and The Scotsman in the 1980s. In 1975 his discovery of South Africa’s secret US-engineered invasion of Angola uncovered the CIA’s involvement in the Angolan civil war, and was a world scoop.

Bridgland has written a number of books and has just completed a biography of Winnie Mandela.

Author's books

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Cuito Cuanavale

It is September 1987. The Angolan Army – with the support of Cuban troops and Soviet advisors – has built up a massive force on the Lomba River near Cuito Cuanavale in southern Angola. Their goal? To capture Jamba, the headquarters of the rebel group Unita, supported by the South African Defence Force (SADF) in the so-called Border War. Thousands of soldiers died in the vicious fighting that is described in vivid detail in this book. Bridgland pieced together this account through scores of interviews with SADF men who were on the front line. This dramatic retelling takes the reader to the heart of the action.

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Quiet Time with the President_Audiobook cover

Quiet Time with the President (Audiobook)

After many years of serving the country and doing his part to help rebuild South Africa, Dr Peter Friedland was given an opportunity to serve as a member of Nelson Mandela’s medical team and helped to monitor his hearing. Through many conversations had with Mandela and lessons he learnt from his life, Peter worked through some of his PTSD, his fears and the deep sense of hopelessness he felt as he came to terms with his decision to emigrate to Australia.

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The Guerrilla and the Journalist_final front cover

The Guerrilla and the Journalist

More than 30 years after writing a sympathetic biography of Savimbi, Fred Bridgland sets the record straight. Based on new evidence that has come to light, he reveals the rebel leader’s murderous legacy. In the 1970s and 1980s, when Angola was a hotbed of the Cold War, few people would have believed that Savimbi was a manipulative and paranoid tyrant prepared to kill anyone he viewed as a threat to his power.

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