Richard Lloyd Parry

Richard Lloyd Parry is a British foreign correspondent. He is the Asia Editor of "The Times" of London, based in Tokyo, and is the author of "In the Time of Madness", a non-fiction book about Indonesia and East Timor. In 2005, he was named Foreign Correspondent of the Year in the UK's "What The Papers Say" Awards.

Early life

He was born in Southport, Merseyside in 1969, and was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby and Oxford University. His interest in the Far East was sparked by a trip to Japan in 1986 that was awarded to him as a prize whilst appearing on the UK TV quiz show "Blockbusters".

Career in journalism

In 1995, he became Tokyo correspondent of the British newspaper "The Independent" and began reporting from other countries in Asia. In 1998 he covered the fall of President Suharto in Indonesia, and the violence which followed the independence referendum in East Timor. In 2002, he moved to "The Times". Altogether he has worked in twenty-four countries, including Afghanistan, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Kosovo and Macedonia. Most recently, he has been a regular visitor to Iraq, and reported from the province of Aceh on the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Publication

"In the Time of Madness" was published in 2005. As well as presenting an eye witness account of the events leading up to and following the fall of Suharto, it also dramatised the personal crisis which Lloyd Parry experienced as a young reporter facing the perils and excitements of death and violence. It was shortlisted for a Dolman Best Travel Book Award in 2006.

"I imagined that these experiences had imparted something to my character, an invisible shell which would stand me in good stead", he wrote. "But then I went to East Timor, where I discovered that such experience is never externalised, only absorbed, and that it builds up inside one, like a toxin. In East Timor, I became afraid, and couldn’t control my fear. I ran away, and afterwards I was ashamed."

Weblog

Lloyd Parry also contributes a weblog to The Times website, entitled [http://www.timesonline.typepad.com/times_tokyo_weblog/ Asia Exile] .