“We want the world and we want it now.” Thirty years on and the world’s poor are barely closer to securing their basic human rights. This much is clear from Words Into Action, by Pat Simmons for Oxfam, £4.95, ISBN 0 85598 331 0. If you only ever read one book on the developing world, make it this one. Written in digestible chunks, it’s passionate but never hectoring. Perfect for the compassion-fatigued.
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