Anthony Sampson

Author and journalist

Anthony Sampson (1926-2004) was a journalist and author, who specialised in South Africa. He took an interest in South African affairs from 1951 when, after graduating from Christ Church, Oxford, he first went to South Africa to become Editor of the 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. In 1956 Sampson published his first book – an account of his four years as Editor (Drum: An African Adventure). He then wrote about the treason trials in 1958 and reported on Mandela's own trial before he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.

In London, Sampson worked for the Observer for six years before publishing his groundbreaking, bestselling Anatomy Of Britain (1962), which was later updated four times, and read by Mandela in prison. He followed it with a succession of major books about international business, including Seven Sisters (1975), The Arms Bazaar (1977), Black And Gold (1987) – an account of the relations between business and apartheid) – and Company Man (1995).

He was chairman of the Society of Authors and a member of the Scott Trust, which owns the Guardian and Observer, and was also a founding member of the Social Democratic Party. His more recent books include Mandela: The Authorised Biography (1999) – which won the Alan Paton Award – and Anatomy of Britain, ‘Who Runs this Place?’ (2004). Sampson died on 18 December 2004, and his autobiography, The Anatomist, was published in 2008.