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

“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.  ■