{"product_id":"invisible-walls-9781474613750","title":"Invisible Walls","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e''Memoirs of such richness are rare . . . a joy'' JAMES NAUGHTIE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''A remarkable personal journey, by one of the great political correspondents of our world - eloquent, enlightening, exhilarating'' PHILIPPE SANDS\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA trailblazer for women in journalism, Hella Pick arrived in Britain in 1939 as a child refugee from Austria. Over nearly four decades she covered the volatile global scene, first in West Africa, followed by America and long periods in Europe. In her thirty-five years with the \u003ci\u003eGuardian \u003c\/i\u003eshe reported on the end of Empire in West Africa, the assassination of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King''s march from Selma to Montgomery, the Vietnam peace negotiation in Paris, the 1968 student revolt in France, the birth of the Solidarity movement in Poland, and the closing stages of the Cold War. A request for coffee on board a Soviet ship anchored in Malta led to a chat with Mikhail Gorbachev. A request for an interview with Willy Brandt led to a pe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA remarkable personal journey, by \u003cb\u003eone of the great political correspondents of our world\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eeloquent, enlightening, exhilarating\u003c\/b\u003e -- Philippe Sands\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMemoirs of such richness are rare. \u003c\/b\u003eHella Pick's personal and journalistic journey from Nazi Europe to Brexit teems with humanity, diamond insights into the leaders and events of our time, and endless fun. \u003cb\u003eA joy\u003c\/b\u003e -- James Naughtie\u003cbr\u003eHella Pick, the doyenne of post-war foreign correspondents, had a ringside seat throughout the Cold War, from her journalist's start in West Africa to her Guardian postings in the UN and USA, to her commanding role in reporting on the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This is \u003cb\u003ea moving and fascinating autobiography that captures a world that now feels distant\u003c\/b\u003e -- Baroness Helena Kennedy QC\u003cbr\u003eHella Pick arrived in England in 1939 on one of the last Kindertransport trains from Austria and became one of the luckiest as well as the most skillful journalists of her generation. She always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. \u003cb\u003eThese memoirs offer a shrewd, detached and wise insight into some of the great events of the late 20th century\u003c\/b\u003e -- Jonathan Sumption\u003cbr\u003eHella Pick's \u003cb\u003evivid and moving \u003c\/b\u003eaccount of her trailblazing life on the inside track of international politics over four dramatic  decades is \u003cb\u003ea revelation - and a triumph of her extraordinary spirit\u003c\/b\u003e -- Cate Haste\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThrilling and moving\u003c\/b\u003e, Hella Pick's odyssey from child exile to trailblazing woman journalist and confidante of world leaders \u003cb\u003eshines a bright light on two of the greatest challenges of our time: achieving gender equality and the refugee's struggle for identity and belonging\u003c\/b\u003e -- Simon May\u003cbr\u003eAn \u003cb\u003eelegant and engaging\u003c\/b\u003e memoir. Hella Pick escaped the Nazi death-camps to come to Britain and became the doyenne of diplomatic journalists. Hers is \u003cb\u003ean inspirational story \u003c\/b\u003e -- Lionel Barber\u003cbr\u003eIn her \u003cb\u003eextraordinary \u003c\/b\u003ememoir,\u003cb\u003e Hella Pick reveals why she is one of the foremost Foreign Correspondents of her age \u003c\/b\u003e. . . this is \u003cb\u003ea memoir of great hope and a fascinating testimony\u003c\/b\u003e, often with telling microscopic detail, that explains how we just managed to make it through the five decades after the Second World War without blowing ourselves up -- Misha Glenny\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn extraordinary life\u003c\/b\u003e, told by a veteran among Foreign Correspondents who reported in-depth on the forces which shaped the Cold War - and  its uneasy aftermath. From the building of the Berlin Wall to its demise, the scramble for Africa, power play of Washington and New York and rise of China, Hella Pick has been on hand with her notebook and keen eye. Her odyssey from a child sent to Britain in the Kindertransport to doyenne of the foreign corps is\u003cb\u003e a rich journey of discovery - professional and personal\u003c\/b\u003e -- Anne McElvoy\u003cbr\u003eHella Pick is the doyenne, the queen, of diplomatic writers. Her memoirs are \u003cb\u003ebeautifully written, and filled with revealing and moving detail\u003c\/b\u003e. If you want to understand why the world is in the state it is, Hella's story helps to explain it all. \u003cb\u003eAt the end, I closed it with real regret\u003c\/b\u003e -- John Simpson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn extraordinary life, and Hella Pick's impressive insights are remarkable\u003c\/b\u003e -- Thomas Harding, author of 'The House by the Lake'\u003cbr\u003eFrom pre-war Vienna to Fleet Street via the Kindertransport, Hella Pick's memoir is \u003cb\u003ean enjoyable mix of the personal and political\u003c\/b\u003e, following her journey from refugee to senior journalist \u003cb\u003ewith a front-row view of world politics\u003c\/b\u003e -- Katharine Viner, Editor-in-chief, Guardian News \u0026amp; Media\u003cbr\u003eHella Pick lived through, and reported on, many of the most seismic moments of the past fourscore years or so. Now she turns her exceptional reporting skills on herself - and the result is \u003cb\u003efascinating, moving and truly inspiring\u003c\/b\u003e -- Alan Rusbridger, Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford and former Editor-in-Chief of the Guardian\u003cbr\u003eThe great\u003ci\u003e Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e journalist Hella Pick's memoir \u003ci\u003eInvisible Walls \u003c\/i\u003eis not just \u003cb\u003ea fascinating account of how this Austrian refugee went on to cover some of the most significant events of the last century\u003c\/b\u003e, but is also a clarion call for good old-fashioned journalism in a world of social media and fake news * CHOICE *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA touchingly open account of a stellar career\u003c\/b\u003e and its disappointments, personal and professional. She arrived at Liverpool Street station in 1939, and eleven-year-old Kindertransport refugee from Vienna... Her account of her long career is remarkable, partly owing to the range of postwar politicians who knew her and gave her stories... \u003cb\u003eThis account of her extraordinary life is a considerable achievement\u003c\/b\u003e -- Frances Cairncross * LITERARY REVIEW *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBoth an eyewitness account of many of the defining moments and figures of the post-1945 age as well as a poignant reminder of the searing personal story of a generation of immigrant children who, having fled Nazism, grew up to make a remarkable impact on Britain\u003c\/b\u003e... In what was still very much a male domain, Pick stood out as an independent woman with a sharp intellect, ambition and disarming charm. The result was insightful coverage as well as some memorable encounters in pursuit of the story... \"I had no pretensions to see myself as a pioneer, let alone a role model,\", she concludes. In this aspect, the celebrated diplomatic correspondent, foreign policy expert and roving world reporter most certainly failed -- Tessa Szyszkowitz * FINANCIAL TIMES *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e[A] formidable memoir of a dynamic life\u003c\/b\u003e spent gathering information in some of the world's most powerful corridors * STRONG WORDS magazine *\u003cbr\u003eAs a journalist, [Pick] covered the end of empire in Africa, the cold war, the 1968 upheavals in Paris, Kennedy's assassination and the collapse of the Soviet bloc. At the UN, or at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London she cut a distinctive figure, always elegantly dressed, her dark hair swept back from her strong features. Her deep voice with its cut-glass accent was instantly recognisable when she was interviewed on BBC radio. \u003cb\u003eThose of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eus who followed her as female foreign correspondents in what was then a male-dominated profession could only envy her poise - and her legendary contacts book. She knew everyone, from diplomats to prime ministers and presidents. More importantly, they knew her.\u003c\/b\u003e -- Lindsey Hilsum * THE GUARDIAN *\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePick's book is \u003cb\u003ea celebration of a lost age of journalism\u003c\/b\u003e, when, once accepted, reporters were free to roam the corridors\u003cbr\u003eof power unfettered by security constraints, with easy access to the powerful, dictating copy over the phone, with no competition from the internet or social media... A constant refrain runs through Pick's book. \"Irrespective of their achievements\", she writes, refugees like herself \"carried throughout their lives a sense of insecurity that would never truly evaporate\". No amount of recognition, scoops or praise ever quite freed her from what she calls \"an open prison\" bound by invisible walls, with no key to the gates... In work as in her life, \u003cb\u003eadmirable and tough-minded\u003c\/b\u003e, she chose not to look back, but to keep marching forwards.\u003c\/p\u003e -- Caroline Moorehead * TLS *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eHella Pick has lived an extraordinarily rich life\u003c\/b\u003e... one of Britain's most highly respected journalists, a woman whose articles, primarily for the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e, revealed an authentically global perspective... \u003cb\u003eHella Pick is a brilliant narrator \u003c\/b\u003eand, in the course of\u003cb\u003e an action-packed book\u003c\/b\u003e, we encounter distinguished figures from across the world -- Daniel Snowman * JEWISH CHRONICLE *\u003cbr\u003ePick was the doyenne of the diplomatic press corps and her legend preceded her... \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eInvisible Walls\u003c\/i\u003e is a book of great power and honesty, packed \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ewith vivid detail of her reporting adventures\u003c\/b\u003e from the newly independent African states of the late 1950s, through the US of the turbulent 60s and on, through the cold war and into this uncertain age of populist promise-makers, \u003cb\u003eall \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003etold with a keen intelligence and \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003erelentless dedication to the facts\u003c\/b\u003e... She brought to the job the intellectual hunger and moral purpose of one who had escaped the great catastrophe that descended on Europe in the 1930s... \u003cb\u003eI commend her book to the widest audience possible but particularly those setting out in journalism. \u003c\/b\u003ePick is testament to the necessity of having a broad intellectual hinterland and an open mind, the value of cultivating sources and finding things out. There is no better manifesto against the current clickbait culture and narcissistic social media obsession. \u003cb\u003eThis voice \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003efrom before the age of Facebook and Twitter is profound and urgent\u003c\/b\u003e -- Fergal Keane * THE OBSERVER *","brand":"Orion Publishing Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48739609641303,"sku":"9781474613750","price":9.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781474613750.jpg?v=1720052730","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/invisible-walls-9781474613750","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}