From Our Own Correspondent

Book excerpt: For over fifty years, From Our Own Correspondent has been one of BBC Radio 4's flagship programmes. Every week BBC foreign correspondents, journalists and writers reflect on current headlines, often bringing a personal perspective to them. There are few countries and subjects which have not featured on the programme - places as diverse as the Faroes, Moldova in Eastern Europe, the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan and one of Africa's smallest countries - Sao Tome and Principe.So many of the outlets that correspondents work for demand little more than writing to television pictures or covering the day's events in one report of perhaps only a minute's duration. In From Our Own Correspondent, the reporter can tell us so much more: a bit of context, some relevant history, one or two of the characters encountered en route, some description of a foreign country or capital. It is a programme where the correspondents will often relate the unexpected: the day they visited the town that is crazy about trout fishing, attended a 40-course Chinese banquet, or swam with sharks, experienced zero gravity on a flight with Russian cosmonauts, went mud wrestling in Turkey or ballroom dancing in Cameroon.Themed by continent and region, From Our Own Correspondent brings together in one volume the most compelling stories of the past ten years. It is a perfect primer for an understanding of the modern world.