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Amazon.co.uk Review
John Simpson has had an extraordinary professional life: he has been to 101 countries, interviewed 120 rulers of various persuasions, and witnessed 29 wars and uprisings. He had an ill-fated spell reading the Nine O'Clock News, and was also the BBC political correspondent (which he loathed). He emerges fairly unscathed; he can appear arrogant and over-bearing, but he maintains a healthy degree of self-deprecation, and to survive the macho world in which he works one would need the skin of a rhinoceros.
He has become a household name (though he still gets mistaken for presenter John Humphrys), and his stories, some oft-repeated, are fascinating, the tone as dry as his reportage. The disquieting effect they have is to show the fragile arbitrariness of power and the people who crave it, and it is this indigestible feeling of vulnerability that one is left with when the gung-ho spirit has faded.
But what of the man? Curiously he chose to live with his father when his parents' marriage split up. He loves books, as he constantly reminds us, and would love to be known for his writing. He is sensitive about his appearance, referring more than once to his girth, and he is now married for the second time. Beyond this, he reveals little extraneous detail. This is a pity, but should be no surprise. The story is the thing, after all, and his is a journalistic honesty, which makes for compelling, if two-dimensional, reading. --David Vincent --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Jonathan Mirsky, Spectator
'So vivid I could feel my heart beating'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
56 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This gripping volume is a must-read for two sorts of people. Its instant attraction for those who want an adventure story which takes place over thirty years and at the epicentre of world events is obvious - Simpson is a self-confessed adventurer, and in one of his best moments of self-realisation, he admits to being "a bit of a chancer" too. And as an adventure story you couldn't ask for better. Simpson's been shot at in Sarajevo, threatened in Dublin, bombed in Bagdhad and nearly arrested by secret policemen in Kabul. He's got on the nerves of the KGB during the Cold War, gone down the Amazon in trepidation of finding a parasitic fish which makes its home in the most intimate of areas and he stood in Tiananmen Square as the tanks rolled in. According to these pages he's got a short temper and, just for added spice, a bad habit of losing it at risky moments. But the real joy of this book is in the slow revelation of the man's character and the dissipation of the one-dimensional image and set preconceptions we may have of him. Simpson appears to me to be both honest and generous with his life. He is prepared to show himself in a bad light and even admits to using the pages to settle a few old scores along the way. He shows the grimmest aspects of his profession as well as the glamorous side and yes, he does glamorise it a little. But that appears to be because he genuinely regards it as the best job in the world. In the final pages he writes one of the best manifestoes for the work of ournalism and of public-service broadcasters I have read. This saw me through two flights, a holiday, an airport delay and two weeks of commuting to work. Recommended - it'll thrill you but make you think as well. Who could resist that?
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
John Simpson is one of those people I thought I knew a little about but what a revelation this book is. Throughly readable and enjoyable as well as historically informative. You also get the impression that Mr Simpson is one of those rare people that you could not help but like. A Must read.
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I confess I used to think of Mr Simpson as a being a little smug, with polished measured reports either in the studio or from various foreign parts. Nothing could be further from the truth, the risks that John Simpson and his colleagues take on a daily basis belie the measured quality of his reports. This book covers a very wide range of the major foreign events of the past few decades, and brings them to life better than any history book. Strongly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Another good Simpson read
I've got a bunch of his booksv as books or CDs. Alway entertaining and informative. This guy has met everyone whose anyone in the last 30 years. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Capone Boy
Reporting by a master
This book, first published in 1998, and reissued ten year later, is an account of 32 years that John Simpson spent as a correspondent for the BBC, commencing in 1966 when he first... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Brian R. Martin
From Your Humble Correspondent
John Simpson's self-effacing recollections makes good reading, especially for Americans who are used to jaded TV talking heads who are overpaid, over-praised and over-produced. Read more
Published on 27 Dec 2009 by R. M. Ravitz
World events are not important, but John Simpson is... Apparently
I hated this. I read it to learn more about the Middle East, particularly the conflicts since the Iran/Iraq war and the Islamic Revolution, and I did so without any interest in... Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2008 by M. Leyshon
An insight into the world of news reporting
Okay, let's get the confusing bit out the way. John Simpson actually seems to have at least three autobiographies... Read more
Published on 15 Jun 2005 by Darren Simons
Experience is Things You'd Rather Not Have Seen
This book, using quite a lot of the same material as A Mad World, My Masters, is a better read. Simpson seems sort-of at home in odd places, perhaps a by-product of his own unusual... Read more
Published on 12 Mar 2005 by Ian Millard
Simpson at his best
Strange Places is highly readable account of adventures at the Beeb during its glory days. John Simpson has come of an age that looking back. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2003 by fields21
I want to come back as John Simpson
I have to declare an interest. I have operated on the fringes of Simpson's world. He was booked to call in at the media agency where I was working in Peshawar, Pakistan, on his... Read more
Published on 18 Jun 2003 by C. Nation
Brilliant Journalistic Bio
There is no doubt that John Simpson's gripping biography is one of the best that is out there. Simpson captivates the reader from beginning to end, with his excellent tales of... Read more
Published on 8 April 2003
A Must read
John Simpson is one of those people I thought I knew a little about but what a revelation this book is. Throughly readable and enjoyable as well as historically informative. Read more
Published on 2 April 2003 by "djenkins3"
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