Product Description
Good Morning, Mr Mandela
Author: Zelda la Grange
Format: Paperback
An inspiring international bestseller, Good Morning, Mr Mandela tells the story of Zelda la Grange's incredible friendship with Nelson Mandela
Zelda la Grange grew up in South Africa as a white Afrikaner who supported the rules of segregation. Yet just a few years after the end of Apartheid she would become a most trusted assistant to Nelson Mandela, growing to respect and cherish the man she had been taught was the enemy.
Good Morning, Mr Mandela tells the extraordinary story of how a young woman had her life, beliefs, prejudices and everything she once believed in utterly transformed by the greatest man of her time. It is the incredible journey of an awkward, terrified young typist in her twenties later chosen to become the President's most loyal and devoted servants, spending most of her adult working life travelling with, supporting and caring for the man she would come to call 'Khulu', or 'grandfather'.
Here Zelda la Grange pays tribute to Nelson Mandela as she knew him - a teacher who gave her the most valuable lessons of her life. A man who refused to be defined by his past, who forgave and respected all, but who was also frank, teasing and direct. As he renewed his country, he also freed Zelda from a closed world of fear and mistrust, giving her life true meaning. Now she shares his lasting and inspiring gifts with the world.
This is a book about love and second chances. It will touch your life and make you believe that every one of us, no matter who we are or what we have done, has the power to change.
'Uplifting. . . generally charming, occasionally faintly indiscreet, but always reverent. Surely no one but Mandela - with the possible exception of the Duke of Edinburgh - could have got away with greeting the Queen with a cheery: 'Oh Elizabeth, you've lost weight!'' — Sunday Times
Compelling and ultimately heartbreaking ... her unguarded honesty allows her to tell a remarkable story - Telegraph
About the Author
Zelda la Grange was born in 1970. She began working as a secretary for the government in 1992, in the Department of State Expenditure. In 1993 she moved to the Human Resources division and a year later she joined the office of the first democratically elected President of South Africa as a Senior Ministerial Typist.She was promoted to one of President Mandela's three Private Secretaries in 1997, and in 1999 Nelson Mandela requested her to remain in his service beyond retirement. In 2002 she left government and became full time employee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. She served Nelson Mandela in different capacities over nineteen years, as Typist, Private Secretary, Manager of his office, Spokesperson and Aide-decamp. When he passed on in December 2013, she was his Personal Assistant.
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