A Mad World, My Masters
John Simpson Pan Books, 436pp, £7.99
ISBN 0330355678
John Simpson describes himself as a "traveller on the face of the earth", and reading this fine account of his long years as a foreign correspondent, one understands quite what a restless traveller he is. Simpson was often present during the defining events of the past 30 years, and he writes pithily about those he has met. Highlights here include a description of one of Idi Amin's huge gonads, hanging loose from his swimming trunks like a "particularly fine aubergine", and of his shadowing a British mercenary during the Rhodesian bush war.
Simpson's reporting is always admirably sceptical, not least his coverage of the Nato raids on rump Yugoslavia that so irritated the British government. And his support of LM and its editor, Mick Hume, during the ITN libel trial that in effect bankrupted an excellent magazine, was simply admirable. While many high-profile broadcasters relax flatulently into studio-bound late middle age, Simpson remains on the move, bringing us news of what a mess we have made of the world. The BBC is lucky to have him.
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