No Ordinary Assignment: A Memo

"A haunting memoir of disarming honesty. . . a remarkable testament to the anguish and the beauty of foreign correspondence.”—Roger Cohen, New York Times Paris bureau chief and author of An Affirming Flame 

From award-winning journalist Jane Ferguson, an unflinching memoir of ambition and war—from The Troubles to the fall of Kabul.

Jane Ferguson has covered nearly every war front and humanitarian crisis of our time. She reported from Yemen as protests grew into the Arab Spring; she secured rare access to rebel-held Syria, where foreign journalists were banned, to cover its brutal civil war. When the Taliban claimed Kabul in 2021, she was one of the last Western journalists to remain at the airport as thousands of Afghans, including some of her colleagues, struggled to evacuate.

Living with sectarian violence was nothing new to Ferguson. As a child in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and ‘90s, The Troubles meant bomb threats and military checkpoints on the way to school were commonplace. Books by Dervla Murphy and Martha Gellhorn offered solace from her turbulent family, and an opportunity to study Arabic in Yemen came as a relief—and a ticket to the life in journalism she imagined.

Without family wealth or connections, her career in Middle East reporting began as a scrappy one-woman team, a borrowed camera often her only equipment. Networks told her she had the wrong accent, the wrong appearance, not enough “bang-bang shoot-‘em-up.” Still, Ferguson threw herself into harm’s way time and again, determined to give voice to civilian experiences of war. In the face of grave violence and suffering, this seemed a small act of justice, no matter the risks.

Ferguson’s bold debut war correspondent memoir chronicles her unlikely journey from bright, inquisitive child to intrepid war correspondent. With an open-hearted humanity we rarely see in conflict stories, No Ordinary Assignment shows what it means to build an authentic career against the odds. 

How does a girl from a turbulent childhood in Northern Ireland become one of the most respected female journalists of her generation?

• From The Troubles to the Front Lines: A raw look at a childhood shaped by sectarian violence in 1980s Northern Ireland and how it forged an intrepid future war correspondent.
• On-the-Ground Reporting: Experience the Arab Spring in Yemen, gain rare access to rebel-held Syria, and witness the final, chaotic days during the fall of Kabul from one of the last Western journalists on the ground.
• A Woman in Journalism: The story of building a career without connections, fighting against expectations of the "wrong accent" and "wrong appearance" to become a scrappy, respected one-woman reporting team.
• Unflinching Honesty: A compelling memoir that goes beyond the headlines to explore the personal toll and open-hearted humanity required to give voice to the civilian experiences of war.

Jane Ferguson is a special correspondent for PBS NewsHour. Her reporting has won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, the George Polk Award, and the Aurora Humanitarian Journalism Award, among others. A frequent contributor to the New Yorker, she lives in New York City.