Quiet Time with the President

One Sunday in 2001 Dr Peter Friedland received an unexpected call. Nelson Mandela was struggling to hear. Could Peter, an ear, nose and throat specialist visit him at home?

Peter discovered Mandela was using antiquated hearing aids and struggling to maintain them. Soon he became a regular visitor to Mandela's home where he experienced the statesman alone, in the frailty of old age. He was unsentimental and full of stories, each one bearing a lesson. With South Africa in the grip of a hijacking epidemic, Peter often found himself moving between Mandela's tranquil house and the commotion of the emergency room, where he operated as a head and neck trauma surgeon on folk who had been shot through their car windows.

In this book, he explores the forces that drive people out of South Africa and then pull them back, until something snaps. Peter encountered violence on the streets, it entered his home, and when another close friend bled-out in his arms, he snapped. Telling his famous patient that he was leaving for Australia was insurmountably difficult, but Mandela surprised him. He had made a monumental mistake in Australia some 20 years earlier and warned Peter to learn from this. Soon after arriving in Perth, Peter was told Australians think multiculturalism is inviting people to the party, however, it's a long time before they ask you to dance. After a few stumbles, he found himself on the dance floor.