Moscow Calling: Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent

'A self-critical author writing his memoirs sounds like a contradiction in terms. Angus Roxburgh, though, has produced a book that illuminates discerningly the dramatic changes that have occurred in Russia over the past 40 years, many of which he witnessed at first hand. His account is often amusing, sometimes grim (when he recalls his experience reporting wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan), but consistently perceptive'

'These memoirs show us the understanding, empathy and the compassion that underpinned the knowledge and authority of Roxburgh's reporting. A gripping story, scintillatingly told. Essential reading for any young person thinking of a career in the media. It will have you laughing out loud in places, move you close to tears in others'

'If you want a good, enthralling memoir of the great, raging days of turmoil in Russia and the USSR, as witnessed and recorded by an honest man, this is the one to read'

'Roxburgh writes beautifully, with a lyricism and descriptive touch beyond ordinary reportage and that any serious novelist would be proud of. Those looking for the memoirs of a foreign correspondent will find them in this book. But what they will find too is an elegy to Russia, by someone deeply etched by its influence and its continuing presence in his life'

'Moscow Calling is at least two books in one - a memoir if those first years in Moscow, and a wider-focused story about covering one of the twentieth century's biggest stories: the sudden decline and fall of the Soviet Union. The threading together of his Russian friendships and the times they've all lived through give the book its greatest strength'

'Nobody has a better ear for Russia than Angus Roxburgh - a joy to read, often very funny, often profoundly sad, and in both respects a good reflection of the Russian experience'

'If you are looking for the Russia beyond the political cliche then this is the book for you. An intimate and incisive account of a famous journalist's long-term relationship with the country, a relationship as complex and intense as any Russian novel'

Angus Roxburgh studied Russian and German at the universities of Aberdeen and Zurich. He was Sunday Times Moscow correspondent (1987-89), BBC Moscow correspondent (1991-97) and BBC Europe correspondent (1998-2005). From 2006 to 2009 he was media consultant to the Kremlin, and is now a freelance writer and journalist. He is the author of the acclaimed The Strongman: Vladimir Putin and the Struggle for Russia and was consultant on the award-winning BBC documentaries The Second Russian Revolution and Putin, Russia and the West.