Parental emotions are at the heart of what has become the programme’s most popular report. Fergal Keane’s dispatch takes the form of a letter to his new-born son, Daniel. Keane reflects on the cruelty to children that he’s witnessed as a reporter, and the fierce protectiveness he now feels towards Daniel.

Some of the reports have a “first draft of history” feel to them, having been written within hours of momentous events, such as the end of the Prague Spring, Khruschev’s denunciation of Stalin and the Tsunami. Jacky Rowland’s dispatch from Belgrade following the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic is an exhilarating piece, all the more so because she had been ordered out of Yugoslavia only days before. Daniel Lak, meanwhile, has his expectations of a tranquil tour of duty in Nepal rudely shattered when the heir to throne goes on a killing spree at the royal palace.

The reports also provide sobering reminders of how dangerous the life of a foreign correspondent can be. Richard Williams narrowly escapes death in the Congo, Ben Brown is equally lucky after an encounter with a gang of land-grabbing thugs in Zimbabwe, and Dominic Hughes spends a fearful night lost in the Australian outback. But it’s Frank Gardner’s despatch that highlights most graphically the hazards of international reporting. The day after filing his piece on the worsening security situation in Saudi Arabia, Gardner was seriously wounded in a gunfire attack, and now reports from a wheelchair.

But FOOC isn’t all doom and gloom. There are quirky reports that shine a light on surprising facets of life in places we thought we knew well. There’s the English comedy show, hardly known in Britain, that’s become compulsive viewing in Germany where it’s transmitted every New Year’s Eve. Then there’s “Mr Computer”, a technician in Kabul who’s somehow managed to preserve an archive containing 30 years of broadcasts from Afghan radio. And in Montana Rob Watson finds the entire state seems to have gone all out for trout. “ ‘Welcome to the town of Ennis’, the road sign said. ‘Population 660, trout 11,000,000’ ”.

It must have been hard for the book’s editor, Tony Grant, to winnow down thousands of reports from the past 50 years to just over 100, and he admits that the final choice came down to his own personal favourites. Most areas of the world are covered, with some, such as Iran and China, featured several times. It’s disappointing to see no contributions from Canada, Scandinavia or Central America, especially since some of what was included could easily have been discarded. In Frances Harrison’s report, we learn less about the Bengali mystics known as Bauls than about their notion that she is Princess Diana’s sister. And it’s difficult to see why Barnaby Mason’s rambling report on plain speaking in the diplomatic world made it into the book at all. While some contributions are overdone, others are frustratingly short, notably James Robbins’ tantalising despatch from North Korea. But these are minor gripes. Overall, the quality of writing is high and there's a good mixture of the serious, the sublime and the silly.