Devil’s Advocate, John Humphreys (Hutchinson). The Today programme’s attack dog takes a more considered look at how our country has changed since he became a journalist, revealing his own doubts and fears about where those changes are taking us.

News From No Man’s Land: Reporting the World, John Simpson (MacMillan). Eyewitness account of the Western invasion of Afghanistan, with asides about the practice of journalism, by the BBC’s veteran world affairs editor.

The Wars Against Saddam: Taking the Hard Road to Baghdad, John Simpson (MacMillan). Eyewitness account of the run up to the Iraq war, the conflict and its immediate aftermath by the BBC’s veteran world affairs editor.

Revolution Day: The Real Story of the Battle for Iraq, Rageh Omaar (Penguin). The "Scud Stud" reported from Iraq for six years before the invasion in 2003, bypassing the official sources to talk to ordinary Iraqis about life under Saddam's brutal regime. When the war started he stayed in Baghdad, to cover the conflict first-hand.

A Russian Diary, Anna Politkovskaya (with foreword by Jon Snow) (Harvill Secker). Anna finished this account of the corruption of Putin’s presidency just before she was gunned down by a contract killer in Moscow in 2006. It is based on interviews with those whose lives were devastated by Putin’s policies, including mothers of the children slaughtered at the Beslan school.

The Litvinenko File: The Story Of a Death Foretold, Martin Sixsmith (MacMillan). The BBC’s former Moscow correspondent investigates the murder in London of the dissident ex-KGB agent who died agonizingly of radioactive poisoning.