Page 396 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

394 CONTEXTS Books
Maclean’s travels in the footsteps of Sir George Scott with a Travel-diary-style jottings describing journeys up the
series of novel-like episodes portraying the lives of ordinary Ayeyarwady to Mandalay and into the Shan hills (plus a
Burmese in the shadow of the 8888 Uprising. It’s somewhat voyage down the Mekong to Saigon), with plenty of quaint
uneven, although a couple of the novelistic interpolations characters and exotic scenery on the way. A good record of
are very fine. 1930s travel in the grand style.
★ Andrew Marshall The Trouser People. Inspired by the Rosalind Russell Burma’s Spring: Real Lives in Turbulent
diaries of colonial empire-builder Sir George Scott – who Times. The recent, decisive years in Burmese history
also appears in Rory Maclean’s Under the Dragon (see explored through a series of insightful encounters with a
p.393) – The Trouser People serves up a compelling mix of diverse cast of characters ranging from an illegal Burmese
travelogue and reportage as Marshall ventures into some immigrant maid in Thailand, an astrologer, girl band, punk
of Myanmar’s remotest ethnic minority areas. Brave, black rocker, freedom-fighting monk and aspiring journalist
and savagely funny. (among others) through to NLD luminary Win Tin and Aung
W. Somerset Maugham The Gentleman in the Parlour. San Suu Kyi herself.
POLITICS AND CURRENT EVENTS
Maggie Lemere & Zoe West Nowhere to Be Home: politics of Myanmar, covering all the major issues affecting
Narratives from Survivors of Burma’s Military Regime. the country today in handy, bite-sized chapters.
Interviews with 22 persecuted Burmese including child Thant Myint-U Where China Meets India: Burma and the
conscripts, sex workers, refugee monks and New Crossroads of Asia. Wide-ranging analysis of
representatives from ethnic minorities forced to labour Myanmar’s possible future role as the geographical and
for the regime – a simple but eloquent indictment of life economic conduit between the two great Asian
under the generals. superpowers. Mixing history, travelogue and reportage, it
David I. Steinberg Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone has thought-provoking nuggets of information and insight
Needs to Know. A perceptive introduction to the history and on virtually every page.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI
Aung San Suu Kyi Freedom from Fear and Other Writings. Democracy. Concise and balanced survey of Aung San Suu
This varied collection of essays, speeches and open letters Kyi’s life and politics – and refreshingly free of the
serves as a useful introduction to Aung San Suu Kyi’s sycophantic hagiography that colours most writing about
political credo, and includes her Nobel Prize acceptance The Lady.
speech and her famous address at the Shwedagon Pagoda Peter Popham The Lady And The Peacock: The Life of Aung
in 1988 (see p.373). San Suu Kyi of Burma. The blockbuster biography is more up
Aung San Suu Kyi Letters from Burma. Rather less to date (2012) than Wintle’s book (see below) but not its
interesting than Freedom from Fear, this second collection equal in other respects, leaning towards biopic cliché in
of essays on assorted aspects of Burmese politics and places and haphazardly organized in others – although
culture gives the distinct sensation of a barrel being rather worth a look if you want to read up on events of recent years.
thoroughly scraped. Justin Wintle Perfect Hostage: Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma
Aung Zaw The Face of Resistance: Aung San Suu Kyi and and the Generals. The first major study of Aung San Suu Kyi
Burma’s Fight for Freedom, o/p. Interesting short book by (originally published in 2007) and still the best of the
former political prisoner Aung Zaw, founder and editor of English-language biographies currently available,
the ground-breaking Irrawaddy magazine (see p.41). It combining heaps of detail with a well-structured and very
focuses not just on Aung San Suu Kyi herself but also on the readable narrative. Wintle’s also not afraid to ask some hard
rainbow tapestry of other organizations and individuals questions about the effectiveness (or otherwise) of
working towards a free Myanmar. Gandhian-style non-violent protest against a brutal
Bertil Lintner Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s Struggle for military regime.
HISTORY
Michael Aung-Thwin and Maitrii Aung-Thwin A – everything from Mon influence at Bagan through to the
History of Myanmar Since Ancient Times. The only complete military’s renaming of the country and transfer of the
scholarly history of Myanmar in English currently available capital to Naypyitaw. An often interesting read, although
– although it’s far from your average academic tome. A the final chapter is little more than government
strong polemic element runs through the entire book, with propaganda.
the authors launching a series of broadsides against a wide Michael W. Charney A History of Modern Burma.
range of received historical and political opinions Covering the period from 1886 to 2008, this book provides

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