More than 20 years ago, author Graham Greene told a then ambitious rookie journalist, Gavin Hewitt, that a foreign correspondent must learn to freeze his conscience, to put his `soul on ice'.

In this absorbing volume of autobiography, Hewitt - now one of BBC News' top correspondents - shares a personal journey of learning to see much, but feel little. Furthermore it describes how television news is made and what happens behind the camera. There are moments of extreme fear and moments of humour and friendship too. It is a career in which he has rubbed shoulders with world leaders, royalty, rock stars and the mafia, and found himself arrested, accused of spying and in an army boot camp.

Gavin Hewitt offers a real insight into what world figures are like once the camera is turned off and tells the stories he could tell friends, but could never broadcast.