This familiar Lewis combination of a world now disappeared and the importance of genuine friendships, all described in his economic but intensly lyrical style make for a book that is truly engrossing.

Despite a lifetime of describing events and people from across the world, Lewis avoids both cynicism (except when dealing with authoritarians) or wide eyed wonder. His encounters with profound brutalities in Guatemala or Indo China are described with as much care for the details as are the idiosyncracies of his housekeeper or for that matter those of Jonathon Cape and any number of the great and good.

His reporter's technique is much in evidence here, obtaining unauthorized access to where a country's real stories are taking place. This book should be required reading on every journalist's training course, if nothing else for its language which is throughout both simple and scintillating.