I also read modern novels - I have just had to read 60 as I am one of the judges for the Orange Fiction Prize.

My job is to get to the heart of a story, to find out what's really going on; to get it verified and, then, to get it out to as many people as possible as fast as.

It's totally mistaken to suppose that an armed escort is going to give a journalist any protection - on the contrary, journalists who turn up surrounded by armed personnel are just turning themselves into targets and in even worse danger.

In any war, there is a concealment of certain kinds of setbacks because it's propaganda for the enemy.

Having had loving people who brought me up, and then I find another set of people. That really is a double blessing.

Beslan, where the Russian authorities stopped live coverage of the school being stormed, was an illustration of the progress we still have to make.

I have nothing to do with the selection of stories. I'm the reporter.