A professional journalist since 1982, PETER POPHAM has been a staff writer on the "Independent" since 1990. Now Associate Foreign Editor, he has been Rome correspondent as well as South Asia correspondent for the newspaper. He has travelled inside Burma many times, written on the country, and also interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi. He lives in Italy.
"Peter Popham tells this story superbly in The Lady and the
Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, by far the best book yet
written on this elusive heroine."
"Peter Popham's biography of Aung San Suu Kyi could not be better
timed, as the woman who has been the real leader of her country is
at last free to participate openly in its politics. This book
provides a rich and often surprising portrait of Burma and of Aung
San Suu Kyi and her family, which for more than half a century has
played a central role in the country's drama. As an age of reform
seems in sight for Burma, The Lady and the Peacock sheds
exceptional light on its prospects and on the experiences that have
shaped its coming generation of leaders." - James Fallows, Atlantic
Monthly, author of China Airborne
"Peter Popham's life of Aung San Suu Kyi is gripping, partisan and
emotional . . . It contains fascinating new material and conveys,
better than any other account, the stirring drama of her
confrontations with the junta. But perhaps the most interesting
thing about it is its timing. . . . The Lady and the Peacock is an
essential record of the struggle for democracy in Burma before the
mysteries and promise of the Thein Sein era: a reminder of the 49
long years that preceded eight breathless months of reform."
"Peter Popham's vivid new biography, The Lady and the Peacock,
illuminates the qualities that have made [Aung San Suu Kyi] one of
the twenty-first century's great political personalities."
"Popham paints a sympathetic and well-rounded portrait of Burmese
dissident Aung San Suu Kyi in this timely biography. . . . In
addition to recounting Suu's remarkable life story, Popham, a
foreign correspondent for The Independent, deftly outlines the
political climate of the troubled nation, and shows how this
revolutionary woman became a global symbol of democracy, resolve,
and freedom."
"We live in a time of political pygmies, but even in an age of
giants Aung San Suu Kyi would stand out. Peter Popham's The Lady
and the Peacock provides a compelling account of her life and
career. Her intellectual evolution is deftly sketched, her marriage
portrayed without sentimentality and her struggle against
authoritarianism carefully outlined. Reading the book, one
desperately hopes that by shaking the hand of the ?world' leaders
who now line up to meet her, Suu Kyi transfers some of her
exceptional courage on to them." - Ramachandra Guha, author of
India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
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