- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan; REPRINT edition (5 Oct 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0333724208
- ISBN-13: 978-0333724200
- Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 16.4 x 4.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 860,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
A Mad World, My Masters: Tales from a Traveller's Life
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Some people just aren't cut out for the suburbs. As one of the BBC's top foreign correspondents, John Simpson has been at the epicentre of many of the world's flashpoints for more than 30 years. Afghanistan, Belgrade, Hong Kong, Baghdad; you name it, he's been there. And what's more, he hasn't just met the great and the good, such as Clinton and Blair, he's met the top bogey men, too. He's had Osama Bin Laden pleading with some Afghani guerrillas to kill him and his crew, he's interviewed Emperor Bokassa, Colonel Gadhafi and Arkan and had close up dealings with Saddam Hussein. And it goes without saying he was one of the first people in the entire world to see in the new millennium on the specially named Millennium Island, which the Kiribati government claimed just squeezed inside the international date line.
Small wonder, then, that Simpson is a source of dozens of good stories. Many of these have been written up elsewhere in his autobiographical Strange Places, Questionable People, but there are plenty left over for this latest book in which Simpson eschews chronology and just sticks to some plain old-fashioned story telling, with sections on villains, spies, icons etc. Unsurprisingly, Simpson has a journalistic eye for detail and nuance and never holds back from telling you the things you want to know; so when he went to interview Bokassa, he managed to sneak a look inside his giant deep freeze to see if there were any human body parts. It sounds trivial but it isn't; in a strange sort of way the examination of the contents of a deep freeze can be every bit as revealing as an hour on a shrink's couch.
Simpson is a genial companion, not much given to introspection, and the book races seamlessly from anecdote to anecdote. And yet underpinning the narrative is Simpson's global malaise, a feeling that everywhere in the world is becoming more and more similar and that it's increasingly hard to find anywhere genuinely wild and remote. Simpson has been to many of those places, but the way he describes them makes them seem fairly similar in their own kind of way. McDonalds and the Gap may be thin on the ground, but there are bullets and danger aplenty. To have been to so many of these places is an achievement in itself; to have returned unscathed is a minor miracle; John Simpson has led a charmed life in more ways than one. --John Crace
Review
This is the second volume of autobiography from Simpson who, from 1966, has been one of the BBC's main news journalists. It follows honourably in the tradition of the earlier, very successful Strange Places, Questionable People. In this new book Simpson continues his account of experiences and encounters in some of the wilder reaches of the planet and, despite "having no overall theme" as Simpson declares at the start, but merely "ideas and stories as they came to me", this is a very satisfying book. Among the many experiences he recalls are Colonel Gadhaffi farting his way through an interview, visiting the KGB's private museum, watching a thief's hand being cut off, being bombed, as well as falling under the spell of Princess Diana. As one might expect from such a source, Simpson's prose is exemplary. Like his first book, he manages to communicate successfully the humour - as well as tragedy - behind news stories, large and small. A mad world, indeed, if this was not on a few Christmas lists this year.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Apart from the fact that John Simpson has been a long time and well regarded journalist for the BBC (mostly political and war correspondence), he has achieved a level of intrigue and pure brilliance in his style of writing for 'A Mad World, My Masters'.
He manages to encapsulate life's realities, the highs, the lows and the grey in-between of everywhere and everyone he has connected with. Although what this book delivers is presented purely from his own individual experiences and through the eyes of a distinguished journalist - I think it's fair to say that his usual diplomatic and charismatic approach to life is portrayed at every opportunity and stops this becoming one mans crusade to save the world.
John's ability to provide real life accounts of a society built around political incompetencies and dictatorships, coupled with his underlying British humour and determination in the face of terrifying adversity, shows us the side of life that most people if they're honest pretend doesn't exist.
A truly recommended read, that will only leave you queuing up for his next title.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is an extremely good read. Simpson visits some of the most difficult places in the world. Instead of inflating the reader's impression of him by overstating the danger, he is frank, understating and sees the funny side to everything.
He is honest about the charm of villains (a pleasant change from the grotesque moral righteousness of some journalists' writing) and he looks for the beauty in places and people.
Simpson's style brings to mind everything good about British culture: humour, honesty, humility, courage and adventure. Simpson's wit, similar to that of Robert Cooper, who he mentions in the book, is admirable.
This book will make you laugh out loud, and wish you too could visit some of these places or meet some of the villains. I wish there were more books like this.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Simpson, so long the face of BBC foreign reportage, in this book describes his own background as "Wandering Jew meets the Flying Dutchman", meaning both genetically and psychologically. This, however, is a less directly autobiographical study than his other book "Strange Lands, Questionable People"; it might be described as a book of anecdote and travel amid the detritus of war, revolution, famine etc., in other words, the ruin of a house which once stood, that house being mostly that of the European empires destroyed or dismantled since 1945.
The weakness of this book is that Simpson postulates no over-arching plan to "rescue the world", whether by the "development" lobby's way of endless appeasement of the "Third World" governments, the tougher path advocated by the Americans and their academic satraps, or by way of, in effect, re-colonizing the countries and "states" set adrift from 1945 onward. In the end this a TV journalist's book: it conveys the atmosphere, helplessness and unplesantness of a given situation, without feeling the need to put forward any practical or ideological solution. Perhaps Simpson is chary of ideological solutions, whether supposedly final or not.
The book is strong on personal involvement at ground level: Simpson himself manages to help some individuals, especially in places like Sarajevo. He is scathing about those who misuse their power and connections to profit financially or sexually from those negatively affected by the war. He only gets really angry in print, though, by the Red Cross, because of their neutrality during WW2 (he thinks they should have stood up to the German authorities more rigorously). Yet Simpson himself admits being diplomatic with Serb extremists, partly to save his own skin. Goose/gander and pot/kettle?
This would be an excellent book to read on a long journey and is a genuinely good read. One will not take away great thoughts or ideals, though. It is a stream of autobiographical anecdote.
The weakness of this book is that Simpson postulates no over-arching plan to "rescue the world", whether by the "development" lobby's way of endless appeasement of the "Third World" governments, the tougher path advocated by the Americans and their academic satraps, or by way of, in effect, re-colonizing the countries and "states" set adrift from 1945 onward. In the end this a TV journalist's book: it conveys the atmosphere, helplessness and unplesantness of a given situation, without feeling the need to put forward any practical or ideological solution. Perhaps Simpson is chary of ideological solutions, whether supposedly final or not.
The book is strong on personal involvement at ground level: Simpson himself manages to help some individuals, especially in places like Sarajevo. He is scathing about those who misuse their power and connections to profit financially or sexually from those negatively affected by the war. He only gets really angry in print, though, by the Red Cross, because of their neutrality during WW2 (he thinks they should have stood up to the German authorities more rigorously). Yet Simpson himself admits being diplomatic with Serb extremists, partly to save his own skin. Goose/gander and pot/kettle?
This would be an excellent book to read on a long journey and is a genuinely good read. One will not take away great thoughts or ideals, though. It is a stream of autobiographical anecdote.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Seen it, been there, reported on it
In A Mad World, My Masters John Simpson presents a set of observations and anecdotes drawn from a near lifetime of reporting for television news. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Philip Spires
Interesting tales of a modern day nomad
It takes a certain kind of person to be happy to make on average one plane trip every 5.56 days and to live out of a holdall. Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2010 by Sally Walker
A thoroughly enjoyable and interesting book.
John Simpson's 'Mad World, My Masters' is a superb collection of tales from his travels across the world as a foreign correspondent. Read more
Published on 2 May 2007 by Dave Stewart
Interesting stories, but a little too much self-satisfaction
There are lots of interesting stories in this book, although not a huge amount to take away from it. Overall, it's a good read that will help pass the time on a long flight. Read more
Published on 17 Feb 2006
Great story-telling
As I had expected I would, I really enjoyed this. I haven't read (or listened to) John Simpson's first volume (this being the second), but I don't think it made any... Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2004
Meet the Simpsons.....
I'd read the earlier 'Strange places, questionable people' book and was filled with admiration for Simpson, so I eagerly picked up a copy of 'A mad world.. Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2003 by Bluefin
Excellent!
It was by chance that I discovered this book, im my Dad's mini 'library' on the landing. What a lucky chance it was! This is a really wonderful book. Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2003 by "dragonchild97"
Great story-telling
As I had expected I would, I really enjoyed this. I haven't read (or listened to) John Simpson's first volume (this being the second), but I don't think it made any... Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2003
A Mad Man, My Masters...!
John Simpson would never admit it, but I believe he has the least-developed self-preservation instinct of any person on the planet. Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2003 by Andrew Kerr
Well written, absorbing & entertaining
I have read his previous book and looked forward to reading this.
This is not a continuation of his previous book as this is less biographical and more anecdotal. Read more
This is not a continuation of his previous book as this is less biographical and more anecdotal. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2003 by J. E. Parry
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