News From No Man's Land: Reporting the World |
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John Simpson
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Pages: 471 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0333905741
Pub: Macmillan
Pub date: 2002-09-06
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 234503
Reader Reviews:
Excellent Reporter - Not sure the same can be said as a writer (0/0 people found this helpful)
I have just read, or rather struggled through this book. Whilst John is obviously an extremely intelligent and brave man, with experiences to write about that most of us can only imagine - I really had difficulty getting into this book.
I suppose the thing that I struggled with most is the pious, sanctimonious style of his writing. I felt at times that I was being talked down to by a slightly full of themselves teacher!
It is worth reading for the stories (sorry I know that John hates them to be called stories), that he tells. Afghanistan which is the centrepiece of this book seems a fascinating, albeit slightly scary place!
Just buy it (1/1 people found this helpful)
Don't listen to those who say the style is flawed. This is Simpson's best book and details how the Afghan guerrillas and the BBC liberated Kabul before the Americans. It is fascinating and easy to read.
John Simpson (2/2 people found this helpful)
Typical John Simpson. I know that he writes about the BBC a lot, but that's not really surprising as he's worked for Aunty most of his professional career. His writing style may be very conversational, but that adds to his books' personal, almost intimate, approach. As much as anything else, it's particularly nice for a journalist to take a swipe at his own, often pompous and self-congratulatory, profession.
Fascinating accounts from behind the scene (0/0 people found this helpful)
News from No Man's Land is a fascinating read as it relates events and facts not normally included in the terse, seconds-long reports in news programmes. John Simpson gives not only comprehensive accounts of the events leading to and during the Afghan War, but also a fair and unbiaised analysis of the politics behind them.
A very good read by any standards.
Questionable (1/4 people found this helpful)
I have serious problems with this book. Firstly, the style is woefully unbecoming of a BBC News Reporter - it has a brutal, hard-nosed edge to it which is evidently intended to reflect John as a lean, tough guy out there in the big bad world and we're all supposed to admire him.
Well, I admire him for having done all that stuff, but the book is crap. I was really looking forward to it, but the style is just so off-putting. Clearly he jus wrote it as he was thinking it, almost like he were reporting the news. Well, I've got news for you, John, speech is different from writing, and if you're going to write, then do it properly.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Music, Stage & Screen -> Television
Books -> Refinements -> Language (feature_browse-bin) -> English
Books -> Refinements -> Age (feature_two_browse-bin)
Books -> Refinements -> Format (binding_browse-bin) -> Hardcover