Kate Adie's story

is an unusual one. Raised in post-war Sunderland, where life was "a sunny experience, full of meat-paste sandwiches and Sunday school", she 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 reporting and evocative writing and reveals the extraordinarily demanding life of the woman who is always at the heart of the action.

Although an intensely private person, Kate Adie also divulges what it's like to be a woman in a man's world - an inspiration to many working women.