Anthony Sampson is the son of a research chemist in ICI, and was born in the company town of Billingham- on-Tees. He has been keenly interested in South African affairs since 1951 when, after leaving Oxford, he first went to South Africa to become editor of the black magazine ‘Drum’ in Johannesburg. He met Nelson Mandela that year in Soweto as Mandela was preparing for the Defiance Campaign against apartheid, which ‘Drum’ covered extensively.