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Playing the Enemy

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Playing the Enemy

By: John Carlin
Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
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About this listen

 Ellis Park in Johannesburg, 24 June 1995. The Springboks versus The All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup final. Nelson Mandela steps onto the pitch wearing a Springboks shirt and, before a global audience of millions, a new country is born. This book tells the incredible story of Mandela's journey to that moment.

As the day of the final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup dawned, and the Springboks faced the 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.

©2008 John Carlin (P)2009 WF Howes Ltd 20th Century Africa Modern Rugby
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Playing the Enemy

Brilliantly researched by John Carlin with enough history of the struggle for the Africans of South Africa against the oppressive Apartheid system, that by the time he gets to the Rugby World Cup of 1995, you almost wonder how such a country could have ever been unified and reconciled.

But that is the magic of sport and Mandela saw the Springboks and the hosting of the RWC as a great opportunity to galvanise all South Africans to “One Team. One Nation”.

So many great quotes from eyewitnesses that I was constantly making notes on the Audible track. Wonderful insights by the author that were also very quotable.

And the narrator, well! Saul Reichlin is a gifted voice actor. Up there in perfect accents and pronunciations, with Humphrey Brower, Janine Birkett and Brenda Blethyn. He was able to make me smile with happy remembrance the singular cadence of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.

This book formed the basis for the Script of the 2009 film ‘Invictus’ which is also worth watching just for the reading of that poem by the glorious voice of Morgan Freeman.

Pure listening delight

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