Synopses & Reviews
Looking for Trouble is a vivid account of 35 years in journalism by a former foreign correspondent and bureau chief of
The Daily Telegraph. It recounts an extraordinary and eventful period in the years before instant communication and mass TV coverage and provides a riveting first-hand record of history unfurling during many of the world's most dramatic events of the Cold War era. 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.
Review
"He was the kind of journalist of whom his sub-editing colleagues back in Fleet Street would say enviously, 'He writes like an angel.' Richard did indeed: you can see it in this delightful book."--John Simpson
"The best journalistic autobiography since James Cameron's Point of Departure 30 years ago... he provides one of the best concise accounts of Watergate, as well as writing about Vietnam with a rare understanding and sympathy."--Anthony Howard, The Sunday Times
"Sometimes this book makes one's heart ache for a vanished world, other times one's sides almost split with mirth."--Stephen Glover, The Spectator
"Marvellous reminiscences of the scrapes, farces and dangers of 40 years filing from the world's danger spots."--Michael Binyon, The Times
"Richard Beeston was the last of a breed, a foreign correspondent at a time when abroad was as important as home. His gentle memoir combines Scoop-like anecdotes with the authentic feeling of being there."--Robert Chesshyre, New Statesman
"In my opinion the reporter heads the pack in any newspaper office; and the foreign correspondent, so often called upon suddenly to cover the impossible story, comes just ahead of him. Dick Beeston belongs to that distinguished genre."--Lord Deedes, The Daily Telegraph
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.
Table of Contents
List of Plates * Foreword * new Introduction by John Simpson * Cyprus * Jordan * Lebanon * Confo * London * East Africa * Vietnam * Lebanon Revisited * Washington * Moscow * Afghanistan * Bibliography * Index