No Ordinary Assignment

A Memoir

De: Jane Ferguson

Narrado por: Jane Ferguson

""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 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, she began as a scrappy one-woman reporting 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 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.

True life can be exciting too!

I chose to listen to this book, because I have been fascinated by Jane Ferguson‘s reporting on PBS for years now. Her book records and explains her life, her assignments, her romance, all in a way that is fascinating and intriguing. She explains why she does what she does and why her life has been fulfilling as a result.

The book is exciting to listen to, in that Jane has the talent for painting the setting in a few words and moving the story along, just as if the reader was in the scene.

Peek inside the world of correspondents

Enlightening. She was a favorite correspondent on PBS for me. Learning how her world developed around her creating a brilliant gift of humanity which translated into reporting the facts and insights to us. Interesting, greatly appreciated and valued.

Jane Ferguson, war reporter, courage, compassion and commitment

a story needing to be told. hearing Jane narrate her own story was significant.

True grit & passion

Amazing in its scope across so many tragic war zones. The intersection of Jane’s personal life with countless local citizens coping with horrific events weaves a fascinating tale.

An interesting look at the life of a female war correspondent.

This book gave me an inside perspective on a war I had lived through via political propaganda and personal reflections of soldiers who had participated.