'In Letters Home Fergal Keane reflectson the last violent years of our century. The collection brings together essays written specially for this volume along with previously published articles and broadcasts.'

'A marvellous and moving collection'
Sunday Times

Fergal Keane is well know for his 'Letter to Daniel' a message written to his new born son.

A very insightful and well written collection of articles from my favourite BBC Special Correspondent. His thoughts ranging from his alienation from his father, Northern Ireland, a visit to Hay-on-Wye, Kosovo, Bill Clinton, South Africa, return to Rwanda and the the impossible choices for Auun San Suu Kyi.

Bookray

ETMadrid London UK
Cross-patch UK
bookguide The Netherlands
Sarahmuh Sweden

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Bookray on the way to ETMadrid, Royal Mail 1st class.

I got home last night to find this waiting for me, and am glad to see that I'm no longer the sole participant. Thanks for the colourful stamps :)

Immensely readable and poignant writing. I enjoy listening to him on the radio, and appreciate this chance to learn more about where he has worked over the years, and trust his views as ones stemming from experience close to the ground, close to people who have gone through traumatic experiences at the hands of their leaders and the politics around them. A fan of "From our Own Correspondent", this is a collection of articles very much in that style, mostly dating from around 10 years ago and thus a good reminder of relatively recent events that are all too easy to forget. The personal approach really works well. Thank you for offering this as a bookray - may it go as far as it's writer!

As I neared the end of the book this morning, I had eyes on the pages and ears to the radio - attentive to both, I did not miss the bookcrossing feature on Radio 4's Broadcasting House.

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Posted this morning to Cross-patch now that she's returned from holiday.

Arrived safely in bleak Leicestershire. I am a fan of Fergal Keane, not least because I like the name!! It rolls deliciously around the brain...and so will the words in Letters Home, I am sure. This is a greatly welcome read. Thank you both.

This book really came alive in Africa. I feel I "understand" more now...on its way to bookguide.

Ooh, lovely, Fergal Keane's come to stay. I'll go and put him next to my bed straight away, and I might have to keep him for quite a while(big smile)! I don't know if he's ever been to the Netherlands, but I suspect he's going to be stuck here for some time, this time not due to an air traffic controllers' strike or losing his luggage at Schiphol, but because I have a surfeit of ringbooks at the moment. I can't wait to read this, though. Isn't it strange how you grow attached to certain news reporters, and hang on to their every word, whatever they're telling you about? Fergal Keane definitely has that effect on me, and I've been thinking about whether it's just that I'm attracted to him. Well, that's part of it, but I also enjoy watching and listening to John Simpson, who strikes me as rather a pompous public schoolboy-type, and Andrew Marr and Ewan Davies, neither of whom I am attracted to in the least! And other reporters whom I'm sure are telling me something important or even fascinating, cannot hold my attention at all - Kate Adie, for example, and that has nothing to do with her being a woman.

Anyway, I digress. I look forward to reading 'Letters Home', and will get to it as soon as I possibly can. If you'd like to check how far down the list of books to be read it is, check my profile.

Well, Feargal managed to hold my attention again. Some of these pieces were written as newspaper columns, some for programmes such as Radio 4's 'From Our Correspondent'. The thing they all have in common is that they tell a story of a troubled area from the human perspective, bringing "the news" on a personal level. When John Simpson or Kate Adie appear on the news, I've often said "where are they this time, then?" 'Letters Home' makes me realise how bizarre Feargal Keane's life has been, one day in the Balkans, the next in South Africa, and all this interspersed with family life in London or Ireland. I found the letters from South Africa very interesting, but was particularly moved by his experiences with the Kosovan refugees in Albania and Macedonia. "I tried to imagine what it would be like if one moment you lived in a house of your own, surrounded by your family, and then minutes later you found yourself crowded onto a train or a tractor or struggling on foot, driven by gunmen away from everything you held precious." "There have been times when, standing at the border, I have struggled to believe the evidence of my eyes, when I have asked if the weeping and traumatized people, those ragged and exhausted creatures, really belong in this time and place: Europe, nineteen hundred and ninety-nine."
Well worth reading!

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This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before Jan. 2009. My reading goal is 46 books.
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme (July = non-fiction)
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2009. My goal is 25000.

Came home from work today to find this book waiting for me. I'm looking forward to reading it, just have one book to finish first.

Thank you Cassiopaeia for sharing this book, and thank you to Bookguide (who seems to be another fellow British expat)for sending it on together with the small surprise!

This was a wonderful book, very well-written and moving.

I am last on the list for this ray, so I will try and find a good home for it. Thank you so much for sharing.

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In the post to Spacey Stacey this evening.

Received in the post today. Will be reading while off work from my second surgery.