Playing the Enemy by John Carlin
As the day of the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup dawned, and the Springboks faced New Zealand's all-conquering All Blacks, more was at stake than a sporting trophy. When Nelson Mandela appeared wearing a Springboks jersey and led the all-white Afrikaner-dominated team in singing South Africa's new national anthem, he conquered white South Africa. Playing the Enemy tells the extraordinary human story of how that moment became possible. It shows how a sport, once the preserve of South Africa's Afrikaans-speaking minority, came to unify the new rainbow nation, and tells of how - just occasionally - something as simple as a game really can help people to rise above themselves and see beyond their differences.
I think the way [Carlin] carried out his task in South Africa [in the 1990s] was magnificentIt is easy now for a journalist to criticise everybody, including the government, but in those days you could count journalists with that courage on the fingers of one hand. * Nelson Mandela *
John Carlin grew up in Argentina and in the UK and spent 1989-95 in South Africa as the Independent's correspondent there. He has also lived in Nicaragua, Mexico and Washington, writing for The Times, the Observer, the Sunday Times, the New York Times, among other papers, and working for the BBC. He now lives in Barcelona, where he writes for El Pais.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781843548591 |
| ISBN 10 | 1843548593 |
| Title | Playing the Enemy |
| Author | John Carlin |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Atlantic Books |
| Year published | 2008-09-01 |
| Number of pages | 288 |
| Prizes | Short-listed for William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2008 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |