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Simpson's World: Dispatches from the Front Lines
Whether dodging guerrillas at a cocaine market in Colombia; giving Osama Bin Laden the slip in an embroiled Afghanistan; or watching the unfolding massacre in Tiananmen Square, John Simpson has witnessed and covered the most significant events of our time. In his thirty years as world affairs editor for BBC-TV, he's visited 101 countries, interviewed 120 world rulers, and witnessed 29 wars and uprisings at close range. His astonishing career has placed him at the epicenter of front-page events around the globe and given him unprecedented access to figures like Saddam Hussein; Yasser Arafat; the Ayatollah Khomeini; Boris Yeltsin; Nelson Mandela; and many more. In this hair-raising collection spanning three decades of breaking news, American readers can savor for the first time Simpson's shrewd eye for details and enjoy his compelling gift for storytelling. Simpson's World is a celebration of a great reporter and a tour of recent world events, seen at close hand.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published August 13, 2003
11 people want to read
About the author
John Cody Fidler-Simpson
23 books52 followersJohn Cody Fidler-Simpson CBE is an English foreign correspondent. He is world affairs editor of BBC News, the world's biggest broadcast news service. One of the most travelled reporters ever, he has spent all his working life at the corporation. He has reported from more than 120 countries, including thirty war zones, and has interviewed numerous world leaders.
Simpson was born in Cleveleys, Lancashire; his family later moved to Dunwich, Suffolk. His great grandfather was Samuel Franklin Cowdery (later known as Samuel Franklin Cody), an American showman in the style of Buffalo Bill Cody, who became a British citizen and was an early pioneer of manned flight in the UK. Simpson reveals in his autobiography that his father was an anarchist. That didn't prevent him from getting a top-notch education: he was sent to Dulwich College Preparatory School and St Paul's, and read English at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was editor of Granta magazine. In 1965 he was a member of the Magdalene University Challenge team. A year later Simpson started as a trainee sub-editor at BBC radio news.
Simpson became a BBC reporter in 1970. He describes in his autobiography how on his very first day the then prime minister Harold Wilson, angered by the sudden and impudent, as he saw it, appearance of the novice's microphone, punched him in the stomach.
Simpson was the BBC's political editor from 1980 till 1981. He presented the Nine O'Clock News from 1981 till 1982 and became diplomatic editor in 1982. He had also served as a correspondent in South Africa, Brussels and Dublin. He became BBC world affairs editor in 1988.
Simpson was born in Cleveleys, Lancashire; his family later moved to Dunwich, Suffolk. His great grandfather was Samuel Franklin Cowdery (later known as Samuel Franklin Cody), an American showman in the style of Buffalo Bill Cody, who became a British citizen and was an early pioneer of manned flight in the UK. Simpson reveals in his autobiography that his father was an anarchist. That didn't prevent him from getting a top-notch education: he was sent to Dulwich College Preparatory School and St Paul's, and read English at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was editor of Granta magazine. In 1965 he was a member of the Magdalene University Challenge team. A year later Simpson started as a trainee sub-editor at BBC radio news.
Simpson became a BBC reporter in 1970. He describes in his autobiography how on his very first day the then prime minister Harold Wilson, angered by the sudden and impudent, as he saw it, appearance of the novice's microphone, punched him in the stomach.
Simpson was the BBC's political editor from 1980 till 1981. He presented the Nine O'Clock News from 1981 till 1982 and became diplomatic editor in 1982. He had also served as a correspondent in South Africa, Brussels and Dublin. He became BBC world affairs editor in 1988.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 13, 2007
I really enjoyed reading this book. Especially the part about the history of the BBC was interesting.
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