This is a charming story about Emily Buchanan's path to motherhood. She has the almost-perfect life. However, after three devastating miscarriages, she craves a child to complete the jigsaw.

The couple's decision to adopt a younger child naturally leads them abroad to China.

She speaks candidly of the many difficulties and bureaucratic red tape they encounter and of the long wait of almost two years before they could finally meet their daughter.

The diary humorously and vividly describes their first few days together, the problems they face bringing Jade home and the cultural barriers and reaction of friends and family.

Their story of adopting Jade Lin is followed by their different experiences taking charge of another, very different baby named Rose three years later.

She cleverly weaves into the diary factual stories from her career as BBC world affairs correspondent and accounts of politics and the secret world of child abandonment.

From China With Love is a highly readable and fascinating account of the emotionally charged experiences that so many couples now endure, and Buchanan's account adds an inspiring and honest account of her experiences into the media fray.

Georgina Rodgers