Mad World, My Masters: Tales from a Traveller's Life

This is an excellent book for all fans of travel writing, news watching and adventuring!


Great story-telling   September 7, 2003
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

As I had expected I would, I really enjoyed this. I haven't read (or listened to) John Simpson's first volume (this being the second), but I don't think it made any difference.

"A Mad World, My Masters", is a collection of accounts of Simpson's experiences whilst reporting from around the world, from Kosovo to Iraq to South America. Each section is told with a great balance of shock, wonder and humour.

Simpson's narration is excellent - he sounds like he really wants you to know what it was like to be doing what he was doing.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to hear a genuinely interesting story told by a great story-teller.


A Mad Man, My Masters...!   June 5, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

John Simpson would never admit it, but I believe he has the least-developed self-preservation instinct of any person on the planet.

This book, his second, is a far more digestible one than 'Strange Places, Questionable People', although he does repeat a few of his tales.

Broken down into bite-size chunks, this is chock-full of typical Simpson stories about meeting murderous gangsters face-to-face, flying through terrible storms on a plane full of Italian nuns, sitting in a hotel room while bombs/gunfire/flames rage all around him. Every one is superbly told and very memorable.

The man is certifiably insane. He is also, in my humble opinion, an excellent candidate for 'Most interesting person to invite to a party'.

I put this in the same category as 'Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman!' - quite simply indispensible.


Well written, absorbing & entertaining   January 2, 2003
I have read his previous book and looked forward to reading this.
This is not a continuation of his previous book as this is less biographical and more anecdotal.

As I read the book I found it difficult to put it down. The stories engage you and you wish to learn more and more of the people and places mentioned.

What comes across most are his integrity, understanding, concern and dislike.

He wants to provide as unbiased an account as possible of the events that he covers. He understands human frailty and the very ordinariness of the people he meets. He has personal concern for the people he accounts and casts aside the "political" line wanted by his hosts. He freely admits that many of the statesmen, and others, he has interviewed are not likeable and have few redeeming features.

Yes there is a certain amount of repetition between the first and second books but these are minor and do not detract from his aim. He shows us how ordinary people in foreign places are just like us here. The stories of Tianamen Square and a visit to the bazaar, mentioned previously by a reviewer, only helps to illustrate the variety that he encounters as part of his job.

The main thing that comes over is his love of his work, travel and his second wife.

Read this and see life through another's eyes.