Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia
Michael Vatikiotis
Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Every foreign correspondent, once they have spent a few years in a region, will be tempted to write a book about their experiences. This is always risky. Journalists may allow themselves to think they compose the first drafts of history, but the nature of their work usually gives them only a relatively superficial acquaintance with the issues they cover. The result may come across as too glib, too personal, too quickly overrun by events, more memoir than illuminating analysis.