The title Dinner with Mugabe relates to an encounter between Holland and Robert Mugabe in 1975 when a friend brought him to her house for a secret dinner as he was about to leave the country to fight the white minority government of Rhodesia during the Bush War. Yet Holland was significant as a white journalist to have secured a 2½-hour interview with Mugabe as Zimbabwean president in December 2007. It took 18 months to secure the interview. In the book Holland explores the transformation of the man she met in 1975 with his present state. She also looks at his relationships with those such as his first wife, Sally, Lord Soames, the last British Governor; Denis Norman, a white farmer who held several portfolios in his early governments as well as with Ian Smith, the last Prime Minister of Rhodesia. She also questions the President on controversial issues such as Gukurahundi and land reform in Zimbabwe. Several excerpts of the book have appeared in the international press and it is published by Penguin South Africa.The Economist 19 March 2008 The Guardian 23 March 2008 The Washington Post 14 March 2008 The Daily Telegraph 1 July 2008 The Sunday Times (South Africa) 1 March 2008 The Independent 24 June 2008 The Guardian05 April 2008
