Justin Wintle

Interviews by the authors with Maurice Sendak, Edward Ardizzone, Charles Keeping, Richard Scarry, Laurent de Brunhuff, Charlotte Zolotow, Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, Richard Adams, Joan Aiken, Scott O'Dell, Rosemary Sutcliff, Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L'Engle, Rumer Godden, Maia Wojciechowska, Lucy Boston, and Judy Blume---all of whom I have read or at least heard of---and also Nicholas Stuart Gray, Leon Garfield, Alan Garner, John Rowe Townsend, and K.M. Peyton. There are some illustrations from some of their works.… (more)

That there is very little international coverage of Burma speaks to the choke hold that the junta have over the Burmese and foreigners living there. The horrors of genocide against the ethnic minorities by Burma's military regime resulted in hundreds of thousands of Karens, Mons, Chins, Kachins, Shans and other non-Burmans to flee across the border to Thailand, India and China.

In a country where, as one UN senior official in Bangkok said, " just to turn your head can mean imprisonment or death", rose a woman who espoused democracy and human rights, a woman who returned to Burma, leaving her comfortable life in England, leaving her husband, her sons and her friends, in the knowledge that this was the time for her to take a stand for the people of Burma, to continue the work her father, assassinated General Aung San, started.

That she has remained under house arrest starting in 1989 and not executed like many other dissenters to the military government indicate the government's recognition that this woman the people call 'The Lady" was not someone they could make quietly disappear without an international outcry and repercussions.

The woman is Aung San Suu Kyi, and her amazing story through letters, speeches and clandestine interview notes by many brave people of Burma, is well told in this book. You may not agree with how she chose to try and bring about unity, and you may not agree with her decision to choose to stay in Burma instead of being with her children, but you will admire the strength of character this Nobel Peace Prize winner displays even in the face of tremendous physical and psychological challenges.… (more)

The Perfect Hostage begins with an excellent general history of Burma. This provides the context that allows readers to understand how Burma has descended to where it is today, how the military junta came to power and how they maintain their grip on the country. The general history also explains how Aung San Suu Kyi's father also tried to help with the implementation of democracy in Burma. The book then becomes more specific and focuses on Suu Kyi as she follows in her father's footsteps in the fight for Burmese democracy.

This is the story of an inspiring and courageous woman and the plight of her country. A must read.… (more)

More than just a biography of Nobel Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi, this book depicts the context of her struggle through a comprehensive background of Burma's fight for independence (from the British) and the tortuous beginnings of the democracy movement (albeit still unfulfilled until now) and the role of her father, Aung San, in building post-colonial Burma. The book is fairly detailed as well about the rise of the generals to power, and how the regime has managed so far to keep the country isolated. Overall, very good background reading for anybody interested in Burma's politics, and a better understanding of Suu Kyi's principles and ongoing fight. A trifle amusing, though, is the author's penchant for unfamiliar words --- he peppers the pages liberally, which could be a little off-putting sometimes. Some commentators say the book's drawback is that the author never had an interview or direct contact with Suu Kyi herself when writing the book. I'm sure the book would have benefited greatly from this, but i'm sure too that if the author could, he would have - the current severe restrictions on access to her, though, would make this almost an impossibility. Still, i found the book enlightening and very informative.… (more)