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For those interested in the way most mainstream media have abandoned quality foreign reporting in the belief that content is no longer worth the investment, a Little Bunch of Madmen: Elements of Global Reporting by Essential Edge columnist Mort Rosenblum is a must-read. Journalist John Lee Anderson reviews this hghly entertaining and insightful book by one of the last true foreign correspondents on the scene.

After writing several books about his other loves -- olives, geese, the Seine and riverboats, in addition to continuing to report the world -- that worldly and wordwise scribe, Mort Rosenblum, veteran Paris-based foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, has at last followed up his now-classic 1981 memoir of the reporting life, "Coups and Earthquakes," with "Little Bunch of Madmen: Elements of Global Reporting," a gem of a book that he describes as a correspondent's field guide.

A rare blend of great storytelling and pure wisdom, Little Madmen is a manual for today's new generation of roving reporters, but it is also packed with a treasure trove of life experience from a man who has been reporting since the Biafra War, and who has not slowed down. The book is laced throughout with samples of Rosenblum's pungent wit, as well -- Paul Theroux once accurately described him as possessing a "wolfish good humor."

As to the hazards of reporting wars, for instance, Rosenblum dispenses ethical advice about the dark side of things with a Twainian bonhomie that tells it exactly like it is, and yet, much like Rosenblum himself, is not unkind. "Armies are made up of individuals, many good, some bad, and a few downright evil. Officers study Clausewitz. Reporters would do better with Lord of the Flies; even decent young soldiers go rogue. With the
best of intentions, things can get horribly strange. Commanders and grunts alike must be held to account."

Reporters planning to venture into the world today would be wise to buy and read this book, and to take it with them: Checklist for Kabul: Flak jacket, Passport, money, cell-phone, flashlight, extra batteries, spare underwear, and a Little Madman. I predict that older hacks will want to keep a copy with themselves, too -- as much to read and reread for theirenjoyment, much like their well-thumbed copies of "Scoop" -- as for its symbolic value as a talisman, like a sacred thread from the Dalai
Lama's robe.

John Lee Anderson writes for The New Yorker Magazine.