Emma Larkin

Speaking to the Democratic Voice of Burma, Larkin stated that she began that book in 2002 and travelled back and forth between Bangkok and Myanmar over the next two or three years.

As a cover story to hide her journalistic work in the country, she received business visas under the pretext of studying the Burmese language.

[10] Larkin has stated that, despite wishing to publish under her real name, she used a pseudonym primarily to protect the identities of her sources in Myanmar.

Because she was obliged to fill in forms using her real name to board buses and trains and stay in hotels, the regime would have been able to piece together where she had been and who she had spoken to.

She spoke of the paranoia that affects foreign writers in Myanmar due to the constant surveillance and possibility of being searched at any time.

[16] In the aftermath of the 2014 Thai coup d'etat, Larkin spoke of needing to retain her pseudonym due to domestic political concerns.