JACKET NOTES | Tony Leon on writing ‘Being There: Backstories from the Political Front’

Being There: Backstories from the Political Front is my sixth book but the first where I have really delved behind the scenes of some big dramas, and more obscure moments, when I was in the room and an engaged participant.

Its inspiration came from Jeremy Boraine of Jonathan Ball Publishers. He told me he would love a book that told the stories and provided some colour on interesting and hinge-of-history moments beyond the sepia-tinged mythology which encrusts many of them now.

In the stories I recount, I go back to personal events and some major political moments, especially my involvement in the formation of the GNU. I recount events by offering a real look into some back rooms where decisions were made, and explore purpose or a hidden meaning or two, hopefully without too heavy a touch.

In some cases, recent information has come to light on some famous personalities since I last wrote about them (for example, my reappraisals of FW de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Boris Johnson, Arik Sharon and Yasser Arafat).

Woody Allen (incautious to quote him in our cancel culture world, also explored in this book) offered the best one liner on how timing, chance, and circumstance can affect your life and its direction. He said: “Most of success in life is showing up.”

I met a lot of rum and extraordinary characters when I “showed up” while “being there” -hence the book and its title (borrowed from Jerzy Kosinski’s great novel).

One challenge was what and who to write about and which people to include or leave on the cutting-room floor. I solved this difficulty by being confined to around 250 pages and then following themes more than personalities, but keeping each section intensely people focused.

During the writing journey, a lot of events helped drive the narrative forward. I did not start out intending to write four chapters on the 2024 negotiations between the ANC and the DA that resulted in the new government being formed last July. Both the ANC’s tumble at the polls and the DA leader’s phone call to ask me to join the talks led to this part of the narrative.

More mundane experiences, such as attending the 50th reunion of my boarding school’s matric class last year conjured memories, not entirely congenial, but also showed the adaptiveness of old institutions. Living in Argentina and South Africa has proven that old habits die hard — but my briefer journeys to Germany, Japan and Vietnam proved, as I describe, that no country need be imprisoned by its history.

David Cameron said: “Politics is showbiz for ugly people.” I look at some populist grifters who rule today’s world, but also some splendid exceptions to this idea. 

I always found the best antidote to high-stakes and high-stress situations was wit and humour — an ability to laugh at some absurd and over-inflated egos (doubtless I was at times guilty of this charge too). So I have sprinkled some of these light touch anecdotes in the book.

Happy reading!

Being There: Backstories from the Political Front by Tony Leon is published by Jonathan Ball Publishers