The memory of a brief visit to Burma had haunted Rory MacLean for years. A decade after the violent suppression of an unarmed national uprising, which cost thousands of lives and all hopes for democracy, he seized the chance to return. Travelling from Rangoon to Mandalay and Pagan, into the heart of the Golden Triangle, he hears stories of ordinary people struggling to survive under one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in the world and meets Aung San Suu Kyi, perhaps the most courageous woman of our time and the embodiment of all Burma's hope. On his journey MacLean exposes the tragedy of a hundred betrayals. "Under the Dragon" is a perceptive and heartbreaking portrayal of contemporary Burma, a country that is shot through with desperation and fear, but also blessed - even in the darkest places - with beauty and courage.

Rory MacLean's profile page

Rory MacLean was born and educated in Canada and now lives with his family in Dorset. He has won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work prize and an Arts Council Writers' Award, was twice shortlisted for the Thomas Cook/Daily Telegraph Travel Book Prize and was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary award. He is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio 3 and 4.
His books, including best-sellers Stalin's Nose and Under the Dragon, have challenged and invigorated travel writing, and - according to the late John Fowles - are among works that 'marvellously explain why literature still lives'. Author Katie Hickman confirmed this statement: 'Rory MacLean is one of the most strikingly original and talented travel writers of our generation'.

"I cannot imagine a better book on the beauty and terror of Burma. Rory Maclean is more than a gifted writer. He is a man whose artistry is underpinned by a moral sensibility. Read it. Read it. Read it." –Fergal Keane
"Shines with an almost unbearable poignancy...a beautiful insight into this unhappy land...a book which marvellously extends the conventional confines of travel writing." –Colin Thubron, The Times
"Easily the travel book of the year." –Wanderlust
"A triumphant exploration of a country brutalised by dictatorship." –Independent
"I couldn't put it down. It made me cry." –Sue Wheat, Guardian
"Such an extraordinary book...a stunner." –Charles Foran, Far Eastern Economic Review
"This is a timely, fluent, passionate book about Burma which ought to be read by all who value the right of a courageous people to their freedom." –John Pilger
"MacLean gives an extraordinary sense of individual hopelessness and radical disorientation under a system of organised absurdity mixed with terror that is contemporary Burma." –John Casey, Evening Standard
"After reading Under the Dragon, one can never again see Burma's masses as faceless hordes. MacLean shows Burma to be a country of repression and fear, but also one of great individual kindness and passion." –Independent on Sunday
"This is an important book, and an essential book." –New Internationalist
"More than a travel book, this is an impassioned plea on behalf of a tragic nation...Beautifully written, with a powerful sense of involvement." –Sunday Express
"A sensitive portrayal of a people who must soon be allowed to emerge from the brutal and senseless repression of decades. It should be widely read." –Michael Tillotson, Country Life
"Immensely impressive." –John Boorman, Magill