A friend of Mandela’s, Benson was a journalist, author, and anti-apartheid activist. After serving as an aide to various generals in World War II she settled in England. She returned to South Africa in 1957 and worked to raise funds for the defence of Mandela and 155 other accused in the Treason Trial. Mandela visited her in London on his clandestine trip out of South Africa in 1962. Among her books is Mandela: The Man and the Movement (New York: W. W. Norton, 1986).