Best of from Our Own Correspondent

These 87 radio essays from the BBC's popular program From Our Own Correspondent exemplify good radio reporting: an appreciation for anecdote, attitude and language, often with a tonic British edge. The selections, from 1992 and 1993, span the world, with little emphasis on stories from Great Britain and the United States, though even those observations--a Washington reporter drolly cites an American ``collective aversion to smallness''--are worthy. Some subjects lend themselves particularly well to radio: a Moscow reporter tells of the linguistic revolution made by Russia's absorption of English terms; a Delhi correspondent tells of a backward country whose press is lost in quaint, outdated words like ``scoundrels.'' Some stories are offbeat: a Spanish correspondent calls the Galicians ``consummate smugglers''; an Angola reporter tells of the surreal street vending of stolen goods. Other are personal and memorable: a South African correspondent recalls weeping at the sight of dead children; a reporter back from the Balkans reflects on how his colleagues cope with frustration, disgust and loathing. Spink is the producer of the program. (Mar.)