LOOKING FOR TROUBLE: Life and Times of a Foreign Correspondent - Hardcover

Beeston, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1857532511 ISBN 13: 9781857532517

Publisher: Brasseys, 1997

Synopsis

This is an account of Richard Beeston's life as a foreign correspondent through 35 years covering many of the world's most dramatic events during the days of the Cold War. It recounts a period starting in the 1950s, before the era of instant communication and mass TV coverage, and provides a first-hand account of history unfurling in the Middle East, Africa, Vietnam, Moscow and Washington. The book describes what the restless, nomadic life of a correspondent is like - to be living abroad with a growing family and responding to every twist of international affairs or the whims of a foreign editor. The author began his career abroad with an MI6-controlled Arab radio station. He joined the "News Chronicle" as their Middle East correspondent, and then worked for the "Daily Telegraph" in Beirut and Nairobi, and was their bureau chief in Moscow and Washington. The book contains descriptions and anecdotes of life in the offices and pubs of Fleet Street before the exodus, and recounts what it feels like to receive a phone call, when covering the crisis in the Congo, to be told that your paper has just folded. The time he worked for an Arab radio station provides insights into the workings of the British Secret Intelligence Service in the Middle East. The author describes his acquaintance with Kim Philby, the KGB agent, when they were both newspaper correspondents in Beirut, and his subsequent meeting with Philby at the Bolshoi in Moscow. Richard Beeston's son, Richard, has followed in his father's footsteps, and is currently "The Times" Bureau Chief in Moscow.

About this title

Book Description

Looking for Trouble is a vivid account of 35 years in journalism by a former foreign correspondent and bureau chief of The Daily Telegraph. Richard Beeston describes what the restless, nomadic life of a foreign correspondent is like, providing colourful and lively portrayals of daily life in Fleet Street and communist Moscow; of his years with a radio station for MI6 in the Middle East; and of his acquaintance with the notorious Soviet agent, Kim Philby. Richard Beeston led a truly extraordinary life, superbly captured in this acclaimed memoir – now published in paperback for the first time.

About the Author

Richard Beeston began his long and distinguished career as a foreign correspondent working for a clandestine Arabic radio station run by MI6 during the Suez War. From 1961 to 1986 he was the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent for Beirut, Nairobi, Moscow and Washington and in the late ‘80s the Daily Mail’s Washington correspondent. He has covered many significant world events, including the collapse of the Belgian Congo, East Africa’s post-independence upheavals, Middle East revolutions, the Vietnam War, Watergate and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Since 1990 he has worked as a freelance writer for The Times, Daily Telegraph and Saga Magazine. He also writes obituaries for The Times covering statesmen, politicians, diplomats and crooks - specialising in the Middle East, Russia and the USA.

About this edition

• Publisher: Brasseys
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1857532511
• ISBN 13: 9781857532517
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304