Crippling corruption and a slice of post-war life

Journalist Andrew Meldrum's book is a chilling account of how a prosperous country, once known as ''the breadbasket of Africa'', descended into a morally and economically bankrupt tyranny.

Meldrum went to live in, and report on, Zimbabwe in 1980 when it became independent. He soon came to love the country and its people and stayed on permanently.

Courageously, he did not hesitate to chronicle, for outside consumption, the descent of Zimbabwe into barbarism, under its "liberator" Mugabe. Inevitably, Meldrum was vilified, harassed, physically ill-treated, taken to court and finally bundled onto a plane and deported in 2003.

He does not subscribe to the school of thought that it would have been better if a white regime had remained in power: indeed, he blames the Ian Smith regime partly for what happened after independence. He also presents a convincing analysis of why the present government behaves so appallingly.

One can only hope that, as happened in 19th century France, the post-revolutionary terror in Zimbabwe will eventually fade away and the amiable, long-suffering people of that country will get the type of democracy they so desperately want. Meldrum has not given up hope that this will happen.

Anthony Looch

OUR HIDDEN LIVES: The Remarkable Diaries Of Post-War Britain by Simon Garfield (Ebury Press, £7.99)

UPON returning from the South Pacific in 1936 where he studied cannibals, anthropologist Tom Harrison decided to turn his academic focus to matters closer to home. His idea struck a chord, and eventually the concept of Mass Observation was born, whereby members of the public, contacted through advertisements, were encouraged to engage in a scientific study of their own lives.

By 1939, events dictated that a specific, narrow focus be followed and participants were encouraged to write brief diaries and send them to the Mass Observation HQ in Blackheath, London, where they were stored for posterity. Now housed at the University of Sussex, they came under the editorial direction of Simon Garfield, who has produced a single volume of entries taken from 1945.

Rather than - as an enthusiast might be tempted to - simply pull all the good bits into a muddled and characterless mass, Garfield has selected a cast of stars to lead us chronologically through the post-war years in their own modest but wonderful way.

It ends up, in both form and content, to be truly remarkable as the title says. The writers range in age, geography and class, and their comments and descriptions from the international and political to the domestic and mundane, often in crude and hilarious juxtaposition.

Notably, the elegant pen of Maggie Joy Blunt, a press officer in a metal factory, evokes time and place with real insight and colour - but as do they all. Readable, enjoyable social history doesn't come much better.

Jack Doyle

BETRAYING HITLER by Lucas Delatte (Atlantic, £19.99)

FRITZ Kolbe is not the first name to spring to mind when you think of a master spy, but he has a good claim to be the most important spy of the Second World War. This German Foreign Ministry official in Berlin hated the Nazi regime and offered to spy for free for the Allies. Given the code name George Wood, he supplied details of military tactics, missile developments and the Final Solution, and evaded the clutches of the Gestapo until the very end.

It would be nice to think Kolbe got some deserved recognition after the war finished but his efforts were not recognised by the Allies, and after being ostracised by his Foreign office colleagues, he died in obscurity.

WIN A COPY

Read more about this courageous and unsung hero in the three prize books we have up for grabs. Just tell us the code name Fritz Kolbe was given by the Allies. Answers, the Monday, on a postcard or back of an envelope to Spy Books Competition, Features, the Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF.

Steve Craggs.

Published: 12/04/2005