Ex-Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, 71, shares the stories behind his favourite snaps 

Ex-Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain, 71, (pictured) has shared the stories behind a selection of his favourite photographs

1960: This is me [far right], aged ten, in our garden in Pretoria, South Africa, where I grew up. I’m with my younger brother Tom and sisters Joanne and Sally. My architect father Walter and mother Adelaine took a strong stand against apartheid and were a target for police repression. Tom and I once woke to find officers searching our bedroom for incriminating evidence against them. I was a motor-racing fan so all they found were magazine cuttings of my favourite cars.

1964: When I was 11 my parents were arrested for two weeks, which was scary. This photo was taken three years later during another raid at our home. My parents had huge restrictions placed on them – they weren’t allowed to enter school premises, so watched me play cricket through the fence. Firms were told not to hire Dad too, so in 1966 we were forced to move to London.

1969: While at Imperial College in London, aged 19, I led a non-violent direct action campaign invading rugby fields, tennis courts and cricket pitches as a protest against all-white South African teams. This is me being arrested at Twickenham at the match between Oxford University and the Springboks. In 1970, the UK government cancelled the South African cricket tour here because we’d built up such a threat to invade all the matches. That was a cathartic event that effectively sealed South Africa’s sporting isolation, which more or less remained for two decades until Nelson Mandela came out of prison and became president.

1994: Here I am during an amazing encounter with Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg on the eve of South Africa’s first-ever democratic election. He’d just given his final pre-election press conference, which I attended. He was standing alone, cooling down, when I was shown in to meet him. We chatted and he said, ‘I suppose I should be jumping up and down for joy, but I just feel weighed down with responsibility.’ I’ve met kings and queens, but Nelson Mandela is the most amazing person I’ve ever met.

2003: I always enjoy meeting Her Majesty, who’s delightful and witty, as I found here as Leader of the Commons. At the State Opening of Parliament, the Lord Chancellor carries her speech for her. I asked Her Majesty what she’d have done if he’d reached into his pouch and there was no speech. She threw her head back and burst out laughing, saying, Blackadder style, ‘I’d have had a cunning plan!’ David Dimbleby, doing the live BBC coverage, commented, ‘What are they discussing? I’ve never seen the Queen laughing so much!’

2003: By the time this picture was taken Nelson Mandela was starting to be quite frail and had a little trouble walking, and he’s sitting holding my hand. We’re in a hotel in London with my mother and father and my wife Elizabeth, who I’d married that year. My parents had met Mandela in the late 1950s in Pretoria and my mother had attended his trial in 1963 when she was the only white person in the public gallery. So this was a very moving moment for us all.

2007: This is the historic moment when the new Northern Ireland government and assembly were formed. I’m with [left to right] Martin McGuinness, the ex-IRA leader and Deputy First Minister, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, PM Tony Blair and Ian Paisley, the fiery Unionist leader and First Minister. I negotiated the detail of the power-sharing government as Northern Ireland Secretary. Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley had never spoken to each other before, but got on like a house on fire as they were both very warm individuals.

2015: These rangers, Siya and Chad, symbolise the new South Africa – under apartheid there would have been only white rangers. We’re at Thula Thula game reserve and had just seen a pair of rhinos peacefully chomping grass – yet hidden within 100 metres were two armed guards with rifles. Rhinos are facing extinction if poaching continues at the current remorseless rate. Behind poaching are organised syndicates often protected by corrupt politicians, and time spent in Thula Thula gave me the idea for my thriller The Rhino Conspiracy.