In his first year at university, he travelled to the breakaway state of Biafra to help make a television documentary on the Nigerian Civil war.
The following year he moved to Cyprus following the Turkish invasion of the island as a freelance correspondent for news organisations including the BBC, The Guardian and The Economist.
[5][4] In the intervening years, he worked on the London staff of The Guardian and from 1984 to 1988 was a presenter of the BBC World Service programme, Twenty Four Hours.
He brought to light the so-called ‘Ship of Death’ migrant trafficking disaster of December 25, 1996[usurped] and was a member of the award-winning Observer team that investigated its aftermath.
[7] His latest work, with Anna Kraczyna, is an annotated translation of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio published by Penguin Classics.