Category Archives: Media

Public enemy of persecution

Reviews

Hindustan Times

By Renuka Narayanan

New Delhi, November 20, 2006

Rabble-Rouser for Peace: The Authorised Biography of Desmond Tutu
Author: John Allen
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 430
Format: Hardcover

Ask South Africans of Indian origin about race relations in the African country and some lament: “Alas, the gains made by Tutu and Mandela are being rolled back by the whites.”

The new biography of Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu is helpful up to a point. Written by the former religion correspondent of a major South African daily newspaper, the book is written with warmth and with as intimate an acquaintance …
Read More…

On the warpath with God’s first warrior

Reviews

Former aide John Allen’s authorised biography offers an intimate view of Desmond Tutu, says John Carlin

Sunday November 12, 2006
The Observer

Rabble-Rouser for Peace: The Authorised Biography of Desmond Tutu
by John Allen

Rider Books £18.99, pp496

I have talked to a number of friends who have spent time, as I have, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and they feel the same way. There’s no one we know who rattles our non-belief as he does.

There’s no mystery about it. It’s all to do with his perfect pitch. Whether you are in private with him or part of a large crowd, …
Read More…

Journalist traces life of African leader Tutu

Reporting

http://www.dukechronicle.com/media/storage/paper884/news/2006/11/10/News/Journalist.Traces.Life.Of.African.Leader.Tutu-2452925.shtml
Yousef Abu Gharbieh
Posted: 11/10/06

Few religious leaders have caused as much political change as Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

South African journalist John Allen presented his latest book “Rabble Rouser for Peace: The Authorized Biography of Desmond Tutu” to a packed auditorium of students and faculty at the Divinity School Thursday night.

Allen outlined Tutu’s life story to the audience, from his obscure roots to his position as a religious icon and anti-Apartheid leader in South Africa.

Tutu’s unique oratorical style and talent for mobilizing crowds helped him earn a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, …
Read More…

5 Reasons to Live

Reviews

Entertainment Weekly

Ken Tucker picks pop gems to get you through the week, including Helen Mirren’s stunning final turn as Jane Tennison in ”Prime Suspect”

1. Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect: The Final Act
(PBS, Nov. 12, 9 p.m.)

Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison is back for her last case — she’s still battling sexism at the job and the bottle after hours, still making brilliant crime-scene deductions and bad decisions on the homefront. Mirren is getting a lot of acclaim for portraying royalty these days — in the movie The Queen and in HBO‘s Elizabeth …
Read More…

Rabble-rouser for peace – SA Times

Reporting

http://www.sadirectory.co.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=881
South Africa Times, London
Written by Elizma Nolte
Tuesday, 17 October 2006

We speak to John Allen, author of Desmond Tutu’s authorised biography, which was launched in London last week.

It was only natural that John Allen should be the person to write the authorised biography of Desmond Tutu. As his press secretary, he spent 13 years monitoring the former Archbishop’s every public spoken word.

When Tutu became Archbishop of Cape Town in 1987, Allen was perfectly placed for the job. As a journalist, he had reported on religion for The Star, before switching careers to work for a journalism union.

It …
Read More…

Timely reminders of greatness

Reporting

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/article.aspx?ID=301350
Sunday Times, Johannesburg
Posted Oct 30, 2006
SHELF LIFE
Michele Magwood

I worked out afterwards that it was precisely as Trevor Manuel was speaking that my husband was being robbed at gunpoint a few kilometres away.

Manuel had taken the microphone at the launch of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s biography, Rabble-rouser for Peace, and had launched into a stinging attack on the younger generation of South Africans, for their “exceedingly vulgar” ways, their greed and their lack of appreciation for the older generation — like Tutu “who lives in service of God and of his people”. Younger South Africans, he …
Read More…

Spirituality & Practice – Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Reviews

Spirituality and Practice

Book Review
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Rabble-Rouser for Peace
The Authorized Biography of Desmond Tutu
John Allen
Free Press 10/06 Hardcover $28.00
ISBN: 0743269373

Desmond Tutu, the Anglican Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, has spent his life seeking justice for his people and waging a battle for peace in a war-torn world. He came up with the phrase “the rainbow nation” as a description for the new democratic South Africa. In fact, throughout his long and illustrious career as a teacher, a pastor, and a human rights activist, Tutu has been a “rabble-rouser for …
Read More…

FOOTLOOSE: Column [Extract]

Commentary

http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=2301362
The Weekender (Business Day), Johannesburg, October 21, 2006

READERS of Footloose will be familiar with the phenomenon by which the subjects of authorised biographies suddenly get cold feet when biographers do their jobs properly and dig out the dirt on them.

Nelson Mandela’s success in forcing Anthony Sampson to cut out a reference to his support for necklacing is one example. Another is the row between Nadine Gordimer and her authorised-biographer-who-now-isn’t, Ronald Suresh Roberts.

It is, therefore, with growing respect for Desmond Tutu that Footloose discovered the Arch² plays things differently.

An account of relations between Tutu and …
Read More…

As close as one can get to the “real arch”

Reporting

http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=2286608
The Weekender, Business Day
October 14, 2006
Desmond Tutu’s biographer defends himself against an accusation that he was too harsh, in an interview with REHANA ROSSOUW

RABBLE–ROUSER FOR PEACE
John Allen
Random House

ARCHBISHOP Desmond Tutu’s official biographer John Allen worked for him for 13 years and was treated as a member of the Tutu family, but he does not believe this disqualified him from the task of narrating “the arch’s” life story.

“The first thing he said to me when I broached the idea was that he thought I would do something when I retired,” Allen says.

“Then he asked if it would …
Read More…

Desmond Tutu and John Allen speak at Trinity Church, Wall Street

Reporting

http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/articles/42/00/acns4205.cfm

More than 600 people gathered at Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street, in New York City on October 19 for a panel discussion with Nobel Peace laureate and Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Tutu, and his former press secretary, South African journalist John Allen.

The topic of the discussion centered around Allen’s newly released biography about Tutu, “Rabble-Rouser for Peace.” Moderated by Dateline NBC correspondent and Trinity Church member, John Hockenberry, the discussion was webcast live and is archived for on-demand streaming at Trinity Church’s website.

In recounting his relationship with Tutu, Allen …
Read More…