Anyone Here Been Raped and Speaks English?

Edward Behr sets up his enormously entertaining and perceptive account of his years as a foreign correspondent with two foundational statements: laughter is never gratuitous, and the best reporters' stories are told in barrooms, not in print. From dinner with Mao to pissing next to Churchill, Behr was seemingly everywhere during a career that began shortly after World War II. The Algerian war, Vietnam, the partition of India and much more besides are covered with a rich store of anecdotes. (The book's title, which was changed for an American edition against the author's wishes, refers to a particularly crass British reporter's question shouted at refugees leaving a plane in Congo.)