The American (celebrity) writer Kitty Kelley’ on writing an “unauthorized biography” of Nelson Mandela:

For the purposes of my biography of Nelson Mandela, I conducted 2,804 interviews over a period of five years, a fair number of them with those who had either encountered the man personally or almost met someone who nearly had.

And I uncovered many cold, hard facts that Mr. Mandela would doubtless prefer to keep under wraps. For instance, where precisely was he between 1964 and 1990?

“He certainly wasn’t at home,” says one former neighbor. “Oftentimes, I would look through the window, but he wouldn’t be there.”

The extraordinary truth that I am now able to reveal is that Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was unavailable for one reason, and one reason only: He was not at home because he was in prison.

“That explains so much,” says a former complete stranger, astonished by the dramatic discovery I unearthed after interviewing 3,914 people across a period of seven years. “I always wondered why he was keeping such a low profile in the neighborhood—and now I know.”

Even now, Nelson Mandela doesn’t like to talk too much about his “forgotten” years as a disgraced jailbird. It seems it’s a secret he would rather keep hidden.

“We had Nelson and his wife over for dinner a month or two ago,” says one former world statesman. “And at no point during that meal did he mention his spell in prison.”

Since childhood, Mandela has needed to present himself as open, warm, and cozy, and to conceal the part of himself that is a hard-bitten, avaricious ex-convict.

“That’s why he wears those colorful shirts,” says a former colleague. “These past 20 years, I’ve never once seen him in prison uniform. It’s as though he wanted to sweep his past under the carpet.”

Actually its humorist Craig Brown in Vanity Fair lampooning Kelley’s work methods. In Brown’s world Kelley also uncovers the truth about Mandela’s whiteness. More here.