Dare Not Linger is both autobiography and biography, being started by Nelson Mandela and completed by Mandla Langa, a fêted writer and journalist. On its own, political autobiography is a tricky genre. The lure of first-person revelations about great historical moments must be offset against the knowledge that politicians primarily write their life stories to deliver a first draft of history that flatters them. In an authorised biography, these pitfalls are added to by the fact that no-one would choose to have their legacy interpreted by anyone but a carefully vetted acolyte. Moreover, there are also the obvious difficulties of writing critically about the life of Mandela, the world’s first secular saint. The book was intended by Mandela to be the sequel to Long Walk to Freedom, the enormously successful record of his earlier life that culminated with his 1994 release from prison after 27 years. It was started in 1998 and in her prologue, Graça Machel tells how for four years the pr...
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