London: A sequel to Nelson Mandela's bestselling memoir recounting his time as South Africa's first democratically elected president, is scheduled to be published in countries including India and the UK next year. Nelson Mandela Foundation has "a substantial but incomplete personally written draft" of the book, written before the statesman died in December 2013 at the age of 95. On the wishes of his widow, Graca Machel, it will be completed by a group of Mandela's former advisers. Mandela left a plan that set out how the story would unfold. The sequel will be published in the UK, South Africa, India and Australasia in 2016. US and Canadian rights have not yet been sold. The sequel to "Long Walk to Freedom" will be published next year, Pan Macmillan Publishing House said.
Machel, Mandela's third wife and first lady for the last year of his term, said that the book would be completed by a pair of his aides and a team of researchers led by Vernon Harris at the Nelson Mandela Foundation, 'The Times' reported. Machel said: "He [Mandela] wanted to put on record his own reflections of those important years in his life (1994-1999) when he was president of South Africa. The book he had in mind was to be a natural progression from his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Madiba [Mandela’s clan name] started working on a manuscript provisionally titled The Presidential Years in 1998," Machel said. Circumstances did not allow him to complete the project. "I am very pleased that a team comprising former senior advisers of his have accepted responsibility for completing this unfinished task on his behalf," Machel said.
The book, which will be published in the UK and the Commonwealth by Pan Macmillan, is likely to generate both controversy and large sales. Long Walk to Freedom is estimated to have sold up to 15 million copies despite some critics declaring that a more apt title might have been "Long Read to Boredom". Jonny Geller, the agent who sold the rights on behalf of the foundation, said that the content of the new work would be kept secret until next year, but it would reveal Mandela's thoughts on living figures, including Jacob Zuma, the current South African president. Pan Macmillan said that the book would be candid and clear-eyed about the difficulties [Mandela] faced while in office" as well as "the fault lines that run through contemporary South Africa".
