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James Fergusson has written as a freelance journalist
for many publications,
including the Independent, The Times, Daily and Sunday Telegraph,
Economist, Prospect, GQ and Conde Nast Traveller, covering current
affairs in Europe, North Africa, Central Asia and elsewhere. In
1998–2000
he was spokesman in Bosnia for the civilian peace-keeping force.
Kandahar Cockney is the remarkable and touching story of a singular
friendship between the author (an affluent Western correspondent)
and his Pashtun interpreter who meet in an Afghan war-zone and resume
their friendship when Mir becomes an asylum seeker in London's East
End.
In the spring of 1997, James Fergusson, a young freelance British
correspondent, encounters a local Pashtun interpreter named Mir
in
rebel-controlled Afghanistan. They soon become firm friends, with
Mir an
invaluable guide not only to the battle zone, but to the country's
complex
politics, culture and traditions. Not long after James's return
home, Mir and
his family are forced to flee Afghanistan, fearing for their lives.
When Mir
arrives in London seeking asylum, it is to James that he turns for
help.
Now their roles reverse: the guided becomes the guide as James introduces
Mir to the bewildering customs of the infidel West. Yet in many
ways it is Mir
who remains the guide - this time to a side of his own homeland
that James
had never noticed or engaged with before. |
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