Thursday, July 11, 2019

Top ten books on Burma

David Eimer is the author of the critically acclaimed The Emperor Far Away: Travels at the Edge of China. A former China correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph, Eimer was the Southeast Asia correspondent for the Daily Telegraph between 2012 and 2014. He is currently based in Bangkok.

His new book is A Savage Dreamland: Journeys in Burma.

One of Eimer's ten top books on Burma, as shared at the Guardian:
Burmese Days by George Orwell

The sweet sibilance of the title alone makes this a compulsory choice. Orwell spent five years in Burma in the 1920s as a policeman, alternately racked with self-loathing over his role as a colonial enforcer and enraged by the locals’ increasing disdain for the British presence in their country. All that bile came out in this devastating portrait of small-minded, deeply racist Brits in a tiny up-country town. It is a damning indictment of imperial rule.
Read about another entry on the list.

See Rory MacLean's top ten books on Burma.

--Marshal Zeringue