From our own correspondent

‘Interviewing Afghan warlords is always something of a delicate dance,’ writes roving BBC reporter Nick Bryant in Confessions from Correspondentland (Oneworld, £10.99), and, given that he has also observed the methods of warlords from Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, his word counts for something. Though he acknowledges the journalistic allure of ‘shouting into microphones over the din of exploding ordnance’, Bryant’s memoir of his time as Auntie’s man in South Asia (and Washington, and Sydney) is refreshingly free of the macho stuff. Instead, he is concerned with analysing (not to say justifying) the changes in news presentation during his time on our screens, from the growth of post-Diana ‘how do you feel?’ reportage to the susceptibility of even foreign journalists to the wave of US jingoism that broke after 9/11.

Bryant is particularly sharp on how reporters struggled to find words to compete with the unforgettable image of the Twin Towers in flames, and how John McCain’s basic decency cost him the presidential nomination in 2000.