Cassette.
Kate Adie, reporting from the world's danger zones, is so familiar to us that we feel we know her well. But, as her book reveals, her life has been even more eventful than we can imagine.
Raised in post-war Sunderland, where life was 'a sunny experience, full of meat-paste sandwiches and Sunday school', Kate has reported memorably and courageously from many of the world's trouble spots since she joined the BBC in 1969.
'The Kindness Of Strangers' encompasses Adie's reporting from, inter alia, Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Tiananmen Square and, of course, the Gulf War of 1991.
It offers a compelling combination of vivid frontline accounts and evocative writing, laced with the nitty-gritty of everyday life travelling the world by cattle truck and armoured vehicle, without even a bath after a night of shell-fire.
From the siege at the Iranian Embassy to close encounters with bullets and bombs, the chaos and mayhem of desert warfare and the eccentricities of Royal tours, Kate has coolly kept us in touch through her reasoned and level reporting.
Although fundamentally a private person, Kate Adie takes us behind the camera into the somewhat crazed world of broadcasting, where studios disintegrate during transmission, camera crews have been known to operate naked and a well-aimed potato can put paid to a reporter's best efforts.
Kate is sharp and funny, and 'The Kindness Of Strangers' is full of insights into the modern world of news, where reporting the facts is not as simple as it might seem.
