<p>The compelling autobiography of one of the great and most committed newsmen of our time: full frank and occasionally very funny Jon Snow&#8217;s memoirs are as revealing about the great and the not-so-good as about his own passionate involvement in the reporting of world affairs.</p> <p>Jon Snow is perhaps the most highly regarded newsman of our time; his qualities as a journalist and as a human being &#8211; his passion warmth intelligence frankness and humour &#8211; are widely recognised and evident for all to see most nights on Channel 4 News and now in the pages of his first book.</p> <p>His vivid personal chronicle is filled with anecdotes and pithy observations and delightfully records his life and times since becoming a journalist in the early 1970s. He reported widely on Cold War conflicts in Iran Iraq Afghanistan Eritrea Ethiopia Angola and Central America before becoming a resident correspondent in Washington D.C. in the 1980s and he has met and interviewed most of the world&#8217;s leaders.</p> <p>Drawing lessons from these experiences he has pertinent things to say about how the increasing world disorder came about following the fall of the Berlin Wall; how the West&#8217;s constant search for an enemy has helped unhinge the world; and how and why the media have in general been less than helpful in drawing attention to key political and global developments.</p>