- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Headline Book Publishing; illustrated edition edition (26 Sep 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0755310721
- ISBN-13: 978-0755310722
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 432,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
Sharp, witty and full of insights into the BBC and the sometimes crazed world of broadcasting (Daily Express )
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
Sharp, witty and full of insights into the BBC and the sometimes crazed world of broadcasting -- Daily Express 20030524
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
48 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you area contemporary of Kate Adie and grew up in England in the 50s and 60s you will relate to much in this book - from the overhang of WW II, to dreary council estates and pirate radio. But it is from about 1970 that your world and that of Kate Adie will probably diverge. Kate takes us through an incredible journey of local radio and TV, ultimately reporting from many of the world's major trouble spots. Of course if you live in England you know her well. If, like me, you've lived overseas for the past twenty years you have probably never heard of her.
Her book is a gripping behind the scenes look at how the news is made and the risks and sacrifices that someone with a seemingly glamorous job has to make - including 3 bullet wounds. It is somewhat disconcerting to realize that the reporters can sometimes be in greater danger than the military - at least the latter are trained and have weapons to defend themselves.
Early on in the book Kate tries a little too hard to be witty and amusing in just about every sentence - but this becomes less noticeable and irritating as the action moves to the streets of Belfasts or Sarajevo.
Although it is an autobiography, Kate reveals practically nothing of her personal life - the odd mention of a boyfriend or a family gathering. Perhaps she intended it that way, or perhaps her work is her life.
In the final chapter she summarizes the changes occurring in TV news - instant satellite pictures, dumbed down chatty shows etc. Much different from her hey day of lying in a trench somewhere with bullets wizzing overhead. She cannot resist the odd jibe but the punches seem to be pulled.
She makes much of the difficulties of succeeding in a man's world .. where women were once regarded as best suited to cover flower shows and cooking programs. Most of the men who seem to have given her a hard time, particularly early on in her career, are probably still drinking in the pub. She has beaten them all.
You'll never think of a live report from Iraq or Indonesia or Bosnia the same way again after you read this book.
Her book is a gripping behind the scenes look at how the news is made and the risks and sacrifices that someone with a seemingly glamorous job has to make - including 3 bullet wounds. It is somewhat disconcerting to realize that the reporters can sometimes be in greater danger than the military - at least the latter are trained and have weapons to defend themselves.
Early on in the book Kate tries a little too hard to be witty and amusing in just about every sentence - but this becomes less noticeable and irritating as the action moves to the streets of Belfasts or Sarajevo.
Although it is an autobiography, Kate reveals practically nothing of her personal life - the odd mention of a boyfriend or a family gathering. Perhaps she intended it that way, or perhaps her work is her life.
In the final chapter she summarizes the changes occurring in TV news - instant satellite pictures, dumbed down chatty shows etc. Much different from her hey day of lying in a trench somewhere with bullets wizzing overhead. She cannot resist the odd jibe but the punches seem to be pulled.
She makes much of the difficulties of succeeding in a man's world .. where women were once regarded as best suited to cover flower shows and cooking programs. Most of the men who seem to have given her a hard time, particularly early on in her career, are probably still drinking in the pub. She has beaten them all.
You'll never think of a live report from Iraq or Indonesia or Bosnia the same way again after you read this book.
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When I was 19 and a naive and carefree student, I had an older boyfriend of 25 who had just come out of the army. He used to tease me about my privileged lifestyle, and told me that when he was 19, he had been serving in Northern Ireland. A woman once came up to him and demanded to know what he was doing in her town guarding a checkpoint with a gun. 'It made me think,' he said. That story is one thing that helped me understand the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The other is a chapter headed 'Northern Ireland Perhaps' in this book.
Reporter Kate Adie describes the horrors of this war which, according to the BBC, should not be called a war. Her Northern Ireland is populated by grey-faced people who hate each other, '...a mass of badly nourished bags of nerves'. She tells of fights breaking out at funerals, of riots stopping dead because a Glasgow Rangers match was about to start. Of bleach thrown at soldiers, of soldiers sweeping ornaments from a woman's mantelpiece.
She recounts how her career took her from local radio where there was some question as to whether anybody was listening; to Libya, where someone was listening even when she wasn't on air - if you wanted room service, the best way to get it was to ring London and complain about how slow it was.
As with many autobiographies of women doing traditional men's work, the personal details were fascinating - the anecdote about what happened to the grubby tabloid hack going through her tent while she was reporting the first Gulf War was particularly good. This book also shows clearly that our Kate can use her elbows and fists if she has to. However, the book gave the impression of a very private woman - she drops hints about 'above average shopping' and singing and sailing and finding her biological mother, and then clams right up again. I wanted to stop her and ask for more - but that's better, I suppose, than wishing she would shut up.
I found this book badly edited. Possibly, the publishers were too scared of her to curb the sheer joy of a woman used to reporting in three-minute segments suddenly released into 400 pages. It is certainly very chatty and immediate, but a bit of careful red pen work would have tightened it up.
Read this book:
* if you want to work for the BBC
* if you want to be a journalist
* if you are a news junkie
* if you want to know what really happened in Libya, Northern Ireland and Kuwait
* if you admire Kate Adie's work
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The world is not short of books of memoirs by journalists, but this is one of the best.
About her early career in local radio, Adie is screamingly funny. Not in an arch, here comes the next anecdote, sort of way, but in the dead pan style of Three Men in a Boat - one thing happened, and then another, and the next, apparently not noticing that the reader is rocking with laughter.
When she gets to her later career in TV News, the laughs disappear, because this is serious stuff. She is very illuminating about the differencec between the news as the journalist sees it, and how it ends up on our TV screens. She has been to many of the big news events of the last twenty years , and this book gives a new insight into most of them.
You don't see much of Kate Adie in this - you see what she saw. But what she saw is fascinating - and extremely well written.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Best book i've read in ages!!
This is perhaps the best book I have read in ages. I bought the book on an impromptu shopping spree in a well known high street bookshop, not realising how good it was to be. Read more
Published 1 month ago by LadyLandrover
Terribly disappointing
Oh dear! I am saddened to say that this is one of the worst books I have read for a very long time. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Sally Walker
EXCELLENT READ
In Kate's autobiography we find out about her early life and what lead her to be a reporter. She joined the BBC in 1969 and has reported from many trouble spots all over the world... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mrs. A. M. Chadwick
Great read and entertaining but Kate Adie is a mystery
Having just read this book and the other reviews here, I can only echo many of the comments made.
Kate is quite laconic and blunt about many situations - I would say she... Read more
Kate is quite laconic and blunt about many situations - I would say she... Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2009 by M. Ringrose
Review of Adie's Biography
A thoroughly gripping read in which you are exposed to Adie's many adventures. Written with humour, digintity and passion above all it reveals just how couragous this lady has been... Read more
Published on 24 Dec 2009 by Mr. J. Lewis
Kindness of Strangers but was not reciprocated
Well I stopped at page 184 and my respect for Kate Adie went flying out the window.
Sure, there were and still are many dark days in NI history and I understand that she... Read more
Sure, there were and still are many dark days in NI history and I understand that she... Read more
Published on 13 Nov 2009 by Mrs. M. A. Phelan
A disappointing tour of duty
The reason I wanted to be a reporter was because of the formidable Kate Adie and I read her book with high expectations. But I finished it disappointed. Read more
Published on 13 July 2009 by Mrs. S. Biddulph
Kate Adie's biography
This is an excellent review. Kate Adie has an entertaining and fast moving writing style. A most enjoyable read.
Published on 29 Jun 2009 by Ms. A. Mellor
The Kate you didn't want to see
Adie's autobiography is an interesting though unsurprising walk through her career, but she keeps her life at arm's length. Read more
Published on 18 April 2009 by Patrick Neylan
Lively, witty and entertaining
I loved this book !
Kate Adie's style throughout is funny and self-effacing, witty and fast moving. Read more
Kate Adie's style throughout is funny and self-effacing, witty and fast moving. Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2007 by Books are treasures !
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