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Peter Millar's Berlin Wall book is the best read - Economist

Peter Millar's book about the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is the best read of several volumes published to coincide with the 20th anniversary, The Economist said on Friday.

“The best read is the irreverent and engaging account by Peter Millar, who writes for the Sunday Times among other papers,” the weekly wrote in a review of six books.

“Fastidious readers who expect reporters to be a mere lens on events will be shocked at the amount of personal detail, including the sexual antics and drinking habits of his colleagues in what now seems a Juvenalian age of dissolute British journalism. He mentions his long-suffering wife and children rather too often, but the result is full of insights and on occasion delightfully funny. The author has a knack for befriending interesting people and tracking down important ones. He weaves their words with his clear-eyed reporting of events into a compelling narrative about the end of the cruel but bungling East German regime.”

Peter Millar was a Reuters correspondent from 1977 to 1985. His book 1989: The Berlin Wall: My Part in its Downfall, is published by Arcadia. It is due to be published in the United States in April 2010.  ■

SOURCE
The Economist