The Kindness of Strangers

I loved this book !

Kate Adie's style throughout is funny and self-effacing, witty and fast moving.

Adie writes about her career in the chaotic world of the media and some of the scrapes in which she has found herself. Steering away from any political analysis of the conflicts and events she covered, her focus is the role of the reporter, and this feels absolutely right.

Kate Adie comes across as energetic and adventurous, friendly and fun, so this book is a lovely companion!

Often moving, with real flashes of wit, but badly structured and edited (0/0 people found this helpful)

One of the underlying themes of this book is how becoming a face associated with war and conflict just 'happened' to Kate; and the journey of how she came through local broadcasting and got her break at the Libyan embassy is told in pictures and vignettes that are perceptive and witty. Her power of observation - of physical detail and of people's characters and motivations - is amazing and brings a powerful and empathetic spotlight on situations. Her chapter on Northern Ireland is dark and brooding - and not flattering; I speak as a resident - but full of razor sharp opinion and analysis.

However, the structure of the book, from chapter to paragraph to sentence order, leaves much to be desired. There is absolutely no connection between one chapter and the next; chronological order is utterly abandoned; phrases and scenes are repeated in different chapters. Some chapters are frustrating 'stream of consciousness' rambles; riffs on one theme that become riffs on another with one word in a previous anecdote reminding the author of the next, completely unconnected anecdote.

It also now feels slightly dated; Kate writes into a world where the internet and 'collaborative journalism' have not yet begun to have an impact; much has happened to the Beeb since 2001 (the last dated event in the book).

I'd recommend it, but with a health warning that you'll have to grit your teeth and just keep turning the pages to get to some of the good stuff.

Takes time to gather momentum (2/2 people found this helpful)

'This autobiography of a well-known female war correspondent did not engage my interest until three-quarters of the way through the book. Her views on Libya, and Colonel Gaddafi in particular were most illuminating, and unflattering. Similarly, her views on the students' uprising and subsequent suppression in Beijing (Brilliant chapter) as well as the first Gulf War. Perhaps her greatest criticism is levelled at American troops - 10%female, 30%black, and 100% dim.'

Not so much an autoboig as a career review (4/4 people found this helpful)

This is a great book, and in my view considerably more enjoyable to read than similar books by John Simpson. By the end of it, there's a clearer view of who Kate is and her views, but there's a disappointing lack of personal detail which might cast light on why she is who she is, and what makes her tick, and keep her going. Its strange, there's photos of her birth mother but no explanation as to how she is reunited with them, and reference to her adoptive parents are a little cold.
Highly recommended

How Kate brings the news to you (17/17 people found this helpful)

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

The Kindness of Strangers

Kate Adie

Reader Reviews:

Lively, witty and entertaining (0/0 people found this helpful)

Often moving, with real flashes of wit, but badly structured and edited (0/0 people found this helpful)

Takes time to gather momentum (2/2 people found this helpful)

Not so much an autoboig as a career review (4/4 people found this helpful)

How Kate brings the news to you (17/17 people found this helpful)

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