Author:Maria Misra
There can be few more discussed countries in the world today than India. From being a seemingly closed off, economically stagnant part of Asia, with intractable problems of poverty and population, India has in a short space of time reached an astonishing level of growth, taking with China the lion's share of the benefits from post-Cold War globalization. In VISHNU'S CROWDED TEMPLE, Maria Misra has written the essential history to allow us to understand this extraordinary transformation.
Pilger is the closest we have to the great correspondents of the 1930s... The truth in his hands is a weapon, to be picked up and brandished and used in the struggle against evil and injustice
—— GuardianJohn Pilger is the antidote to easy, comfortable thinking, to smugness, to ignorance
—— Daily TelegraphPilger's gift is for finding the image, the instant, that reveals all - he is a photographer using words instead of a camera
—— Salman RushdieJohn Pilger unearths, with steely attention to facts, the filthy truth and tells it as it is. I salute him
—— Harold PinterThe array of interviews with the voiceless and abused provides an indispensable corrective to the litany of disinformation we are fed by the media, and for this achievement Pilger is surely the most outstanding journalist in the world today
—— GuardianAn explosive read... powerful,compelling and questioning- a true reflection of the journalist himself
—— Birmingham PostCompelling... provocative, argumentative and essential reading for those who wish to challenge their assumptions
—— Waterstone's Books QuarterlyWorld-class journalism
—— Johann Hari , IndependentWhat makes John Pilger a truly great journalist is his conscience and bravery
—— Martha GellhornPilger's work has truly been a beacon of light in dark times
—— Noam ChomskyJohn Pilger's determination to swim against the tide of 'mainstream' media reportage prompts him to dig deep. Freedom Next Time is no exception
—— MetroImpresses with its scholarship and literary craft
—— ObserverTruly, he has written London’s biography. I began rereading it as soon as I finished, and I urge you to read it as soon as possible, so that you can begin rereading it as well
—— Will Self , New StatesmanA fat and filling feast: pretty much everything of interest about the capital is crammed into the eight-hundred pages. One cannot but marvel at Ackroyd’s erudition, his energy in marshalling minutiae, his ear for quotation, his flair for dazzling juxtapositions, his vibrant imagination and sheer exuberance
—— The TimesAn erudite labour of love, a fan-letter to a fabulous city, and a book one suspects Ackroyd was destined to write. It illuminates the English character, and is darkly humorous in its detail, tumbling through centuries crowded with legendary events and eccentric observations, as exuberant, energetic and alarming as the city itself
—— Independent on SundayA masterpiece
—— Evening StandardSpellbinding
—— Express on SundayA sharp, beautifully written but above all truthful account of London…This is the kind of writing that gives intellectuals a good name
—— Sunday Tribune