Anthony Sampson
Anthony Terrell Seward Sampson ( born August 3, 1926 in Billingham, Durham, † December 18, 2004 in Wardour, Wiltshire ) was a British journalist and writer.
The son of a chemist and grew up in Hampstead and went to Westminster School. From 1944 to 1947 he served in the Royal Navy. He then studied at Christ Church, Oxford. During his studies he became acquainted with Jim Bailey, the son of mining magnate Sir Abe Bailey. Jim wore on him the project of a magazine for blacks in South Africa, zoom, and Sampson should guide them. So he came to Johannesburg in 1951 and worked at the Drum, a magazine for stories of everyday life and culture, which appealed to the burgeoning freedom movement against apartheid. In 1956 he returned to London and wrote his first book, which was published in 1956.
In London, he worked on the staff of the editor of the Observer, David Astor. He immersed himself in British society, interviewed numerous individuals from politics, economy and society. Published in 1962 his first major publication of Anatomy of Britain, a deep insight into the British class society of the " leather chair, Teaktische and nicknames ." Five revisions followed by this title, in 2004 under the title Who runs this place? . Political and financial power, he was " still seem to be detached from the rest of the population."
For the Observer he watched the demise of Richard Nixon in Washington, DC He wrote more books -. Above the oil industry, the cartel of airlines, banks, arms dealers and the Group ITT. Sampson was committed to the liberal Social Democratic Party. The contact with South Africa continued. He was considered an excellent connoisseur and friend of Nelson Mandela South Africa. For his biography of Mandela, he received the 2000 Alan Paton Award.
He issued numerous other economic and political publications. His books have been translated into twenty languages , some were bestsellers.
The last years of his life Sampson with his wife, Sally in West London and Wiltshire. In the spring of 2004, he demonstrated against the war in Iraq. Every Saturday he wrote a column in the Independent. The last appeared at his death.