John Carlin (London, 1956) is a British-Spanish journalist, author, and screenwriter specialising in international politics and sport. Born to a Scottish father and a Spanish mother, he spent part of his childhood in Argentina and studied English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford.

He began his career at the Buenos Aires Herald and later worked as a correspondent in Latin America, the United States, and South Africa for media outlets including The Independent, The Times, BBC, The New York Times, and El País. His coverage of the end of apartheid and South Africa’s democratic transition enabled him to develop a close professional relationship with Nelson Mandela.

His best-known work is Playing the Enemy (published in Spanish as El factor humano, 2008), which recounts how Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup to promote national reconciliation in South Africa. The book inspired the film Invictus (2009), directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman as Mandela.

His other books include:

Heroica tierra cruel (2004)
Los ángeles blancos (2004)
La sonrisa de Mandela (2013)
La sombra de la verdad
Crónicas de Islandia. El mejor país del mundo (2016)

In 2000, Carlin received the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award. After nearly two decades as a columnist for El País, he began contributing to La Vanguardia and Clarín. He lives in Barcelona, a city he has described as his favourite place to live.