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Strange Places Questionable People John Simpson 9781405048620 Books

Download As PDF : Strange Places Questionable People John Simpson 9781405048620 Books

Strange Places Questionable People John Simpson 9781405048620 Books

A most interesting read.


Tags : Strange Places, Questionable People [John Simpson] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. From being punched in the stomach by Harold Wilson on one of his first days as a reporter, to escaping summary execution in Beirut,John Simpson,Strange Places, Questionable People,Pan MacMillan,140504862X,Biography: political,Language,BiographyAutobiography

Strange Places Questionable People John Simpson 9781405048620 Books Reviews

Twenty recent historic events are brought to life by John Simpson in this book as he tells each story from its very core.

These tales make easy reading and they cannot fail to stir deep emotions in every reader. The pace is fast and the stories are short and punchy.
I found this book to be very interesting. Mr. Simpson reported on a variety of events from a variety of locations. This book gives good specific descriptions from a first person point of view. As a 30 year old, some of these events occurred before I was born and I don't remember hearing about them in my history books during school.

I think this book would be a great read for anyone looking to be a true reporter. Too many news stations just assemble news stories from the news feed from Reuters or AP, but Mr. Simpson actually went to the place to give good first hand accounts, without a bunch of spin.
Minutes after I finished reading this book we were watching a report in the BBC regarding the protests over the recent election results in Iran. As they showed the reporter doing a "piece to the camera" I immediately recognised him as the author of the book I had just completed.

John Simpson relates world events as a backdrop to his personal story spanning 40 years with the BBC. He doesnt report on the events themselves, and expects the reader to have background knowledge of them, but talks about his experiences covering the stories. A fascinating read.

This book was published in 1999, and he has since authored six more books, which I will be looking out for.
A very interesting ride through two decades or so of turbulent history as seen by a perpetually curious reporter. John Simpson worked hard to discover the competing versions (and visions) of truth and to tell a compact and concise story, both in written and visual media. One suspects that the duality of his media methods reinforced each other.

In chasing the emerging stories, Mr. Simpson tells how he got from apartheid to Northern Ireland, Libya to Tehran, and all over eastern Europe in 1989. In the wake of that amazing year, Mr. Simpson then traveled throughout Eastern Europe see civilizations adjust, come apart, go through wars, and try to rebuild.

From hilarious anecdotes about how to properly pronounce the names of places like Phouc Me, Vietnam, to stories of barely surviving violent crowds, this book is a great read of modern journalism. Mr. Simpson, of course, wants to portray the profession at its most noble, but is more than willing to admit to the blemishes and warts that accompany any human enterprise. His insightful perceptions of the war in northern Ireland, Provos versus IRA versus British Army are very keen (see page 108 "Our idiotic army think this is a war and they can win it by shooting down the enemy. Bloody fools, they're as bad as the Yanks in Vietnam. It's not a war, it's a police action and they're in to for a long haul. We are all.")

In this day where we are all deeply concerned about the future of Iran, Mr. Simpson's chapter on Revolutionaries is to be commended, and is worth deeply reading and re-reading. His understanding of the people, from Ayatollah Khomeni to the Shah, are a mix of history, social anthropology, and simple good writing.

Moving to Asia, Mr. Simpson's tragic chapter on China is a beautiful read on a people, indeed peoples, trying to survive Maoist Communism and move forward in the inevitable march of Chinese history. His account is history in the making, and if you want a clear and concise understanding of how China got from the Cultural Revolution to the modern bustle of Shanghai, this is as good a primer as I have seen.

The lately added chapter on Kosovo is also worth reading for the fin-de-siecle of Balkan hatred and violence that erupted after 1989. No one comes off terribly well in this chapter, but it is good eyewitness reporting with a keen eye to both past history and future implications in this troubled region.

Most memoirs tend to be very self serving, self centered and of only passing interest. This one is a must read in the modern "Industrial Age."
Its much easier to criticize than to praise, so I don't have much to say about this book. An easy and entertaining read. If you have any interest in world affairs over the last 30 years I highly recommend it.
A most interesting read.