"Burchett would go on to interview some of the main protagonists of the Portuguese Revolution, including MFA leaders like Vasco Gonçalves, Ernesto de Melo Antunes and Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho. He zigzagged across the country, venturing into the inland northern region of Trás-os-Montes, to fishing towns like Peniche, and into the heart of the Alentejo region, in the south. His narrative is colourful and rich in detail, discussing the Portuguese Revolution in its national and international dimensions with the skill that only an experienced international correspondent could achieve. After decades of reporting from hotspots like China, Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia, the journalist was well positioned to understand the magnitude of the Portuguese revolutionary process and the disintegration of empire in the global context of the Cold War.
In a style reminiscent of George Orwell’s journalistic output in books like Homage to Catalonia or The Road to Wigan Pier, Burchett offers a mixture of reflection, analysis and intimate interviews with important historical protagonists of the revolutionary process in the capital, Lisbon, but also with average people in the provinces – farmers, fishermen, factory workers. As a result, he captured the zeitgeist of the revolution like few could. He unapologetically revealed his enthusiasm for the captains who led the coup and for the social mobilisations taking place in the streets, factories and farms around the country.
Burchett’s journalistic output during the Cold War was often labelled by his detractors as communist propaganda against the West. But Burchett always vehemently denied being a member of a communist party."
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