This book tells the story of Ethiopia, the place, the people, and the westerners that tried to help. The first journalist to reach the centre of the famine in 1984, Peter Gill draws on interviews with villagers, politicians, aid workers, and economists and asks whether any of the rich world's big promises on aid and Africa are being fulfilled.

Peter Gill has specialised in developing world affairs for most of his career, an interest that began as a VSO teacher in Sudan and his first visit to Ethiopia in the 1960s. In the 1970s he was South Asia and Middle East Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph. For TV Eye and This Week, he made films in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation, in Gaza and Lebanon, in South Africa under apartheid and in Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia during the famine years. He made Mr Famine for ITV about corruption at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and Clare's New World about Clare Short, DFID and its first White Paper Eliminating World Poverty. From 1999- 03, he headed the India office of the BBC World Service Trust. His first project partnered Indian broadcasters in leprosy campaigning that brought 200,000 patients forward for cure, this led to a £5 million project on HIV/Aids awareness. He has is author of Drops in the Ocean, A Year in the Death of Africa and Body Count.

• Introduction: For Richer, for Poorer


• Part I: THEN


• 1: Return to Korem


• 2: The Famine Trail


• 3: Hunger as a Weapon


• 4: Rebels with a Cause


• Part II: TRANSITIONS


• 5: Economic Warfare


• 6: How to Prevent a Famine


• 7: Population Matters


• Part III: NOW


• 8: 2005 and All That


• 9: Down with Democracy?


• 10: Free Association


• 11: Pastoral Affairs


• Part IV: PROSPECTS


• 12: Spoiling the Party


• 13: Enter the Dragon


• 14: Us and Them