Covering the ongoing anti-government red-shirt demonstration in Bangkok is a challenge. It’s not just the heat, although that’s bad enough. It’s 35 C right now, just two degrees shy of the temperature of the blood being drawn from protesters to throw at Government House today. Bangkok-based red-shirts can (and do) return home each evening, to bathe [...]

According to my dictionary, the non-musical definition of fugue is “a state or period of loss of awareness of one’s identity, often coupled with flight from one’s usual environment, associated with certain forms of hysteria and epilepsy.” Don’t know about the epilepsy bit, but with tens of thousands of red-shirted supporters of ousted prime minister [...]

I’ve just finished Maggie Helwig‘s novel Between Mountains. Its protagonist is a traumatized Canadian war reporter called Daniel, whose life intertwines with a war criminal and a court translator. Liverpool-born Helwig is a fine writer. While her book hasn’t made my (mental) list of Best Books About Journalists, it contains plenty of wisdom about the [...]

Above my desk in Bangkok I have that quote by Mark Twain: “A journalist is a reporter out of a job.” I put it there to remind me that reporting—seeking truths, extracting facts, bearing witness—is the beating heart of my profession. It also helps explain why it took me so long—years, in fact—to start this [...]