John Carlin (journalist)

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John Carlin
Born (1956-05-12) May 12, 1956 (age 67)
United Kingdom
Occupation Journalist, writer, author
Genre Journalism, sports, non-fiction
File:Playing the enemy book cover.jpg
Playing the Enemy by John Carlin

John Carlin (born 12 May 1956)[1] is a journalist and author, who deals with both sports and politics. His book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, about former South African president Nelson Mandela, is the basis for the 2009 film Invictus.

Personal life

Carlin was born to a Scottish father and Spanish mother. He spent the first three years of his life in North London, before moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina, due to his father's posting to the British Embassy.[2] After returning to England, he was educated at St. George's College, Weybridge, and went on to earn an MA in English Language and Literature from Oxford University.[2] In September of 1988, he married a niece of assassinated Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza [3] who had been identified earlier that year by Nicaraguan Interior Minister Tomas Borge as a counter-intelligence agent for the Sandinistas who carried out missions "in the heart of the CIA." She said she had been an informal collaborator to Nicaraguan intelligence and had not been paid. [4] The union didn't last.

Career

Carlin began his journalism career at the Buenos Aires Herald in 1981, writing about film, football and politics. In 1982, he began a six-year stint in Mexico and Central America working for, among others, The Times and Sunday Times, the Toronto Star, BBC, CBC, and ABC (US) before joining the staff of The Independent at the newspaper's launch in 1986.

Carlin was The Independent's South Africa bureau chief from 1989–1995.[1] In 1993, Carlin wrote and presented a BBC documentary on the South African Third Force, his first television work.[5]

From 1995–1998 he was the United States bureau chief for The Independent on Sunday.[1]

In 1997, Carlin wrote an article titled "A Farewell to Arms" for Wired magazine about a cyber warfare attack. This was originally intended to form the basis of a 1999 film, WW3.com.[6] When this project stalled, its script was rewritten into the 2007 film, Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4.0).[7]

In 1998, Carlin joined El País, the world's leading Spanish-language newspaper, where he remains working as a senior international writer, based in Barcelona.[citation needed]

Carlin was writer and interviewer for the 1999 episode "The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela" of the American PBS series Frontline.[8] It was also broadcast as "The First Accused" in South Africa by the SABC.[5]

An article by Carlin was the basis for the script of the 2000 Channel 4 documentary Maradona – Kicking the Habit.[9] Carlin won the 2000 El País Ortega y Gasset Award for journalism, for an article in Spanish newspaper El País.[1] In 2004 he won the British Press Awards "Food and Drink Writer of the Year" prize.

Nelson Mandela

Much of Carlin's career has dealt with the politics of South Africa. This had led to a relationship with the former South African president, Nelson Mandela.[citation needed]

In a 1998 interview, Mandela said of Carlin's journalism: "What you wrote and the way in which you carried out your task in this country was absolutely magnificent…it was absolutely inspiring. You have been very courageous, saying things which many journalists would never say."[10] Mandela wrote the foreword to Carlin's 2004 Spanish language book, Heroica Tierra Cruel, about Africa.[1]

In August 2008, Carlin published the book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation, about how Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup to reconcile a nation riven by centuries of racial animosity.[11] The book became the basis for Clint Eastwood's 2009 film, Invictus, starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela.[citation needed]

Carlin has written for, among others, the Financial Times, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Observer, the Guardian, the Daily Mail, the New Statesman, Wired and New Republic.

Other works

In August 2011, Carlin collaborated with tennis superstar Rafael Nadal on the latter's autobiography Rafa (Hyperion, 2012, ISBN 1401310923).[12]

Filmography

Bibliography

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Official site of John Carlin, Curriculum Vitae
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Official site of John Carlin, My Story
  3. ↑ http://ciperchile.cl/2009/12/21/invictus-la-historia-del-libro-sobre-nelson-mandela-que-morgan-freeman-llevo-al-cine/
  4. ↑ http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Nicaraguan-Journalist-Denies-Infiltrating-CIA/id-265e7ddffdaf7671132a0b527c869928
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Official site of John Carlin, TV
  6. ↑ Fox eyes 'WW3.com' as tentpole for 1999 Variety.com, 27 January 1998
  7. ↑ The 'Die Hard' is cast for scribe Richardson Variety.com, 26 July 2004
  8. ↑ Television Review; Nelson Mandela: Man, Leader and, of Course, Legend New York Times, 25 May 1999
  9. ↑ Maradona opens up on life of deception John Carlin, The Independent, 6 August 2000
  10. ↑ Official site of John Carlin, Review Extracts, Playing the Enemy
  11. ↑ When Nelson had a ball The Guardian, 31 August 2008
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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