No comments about Hold the Front Page! And Bring in the Clowns!.

No comments about Worlds and I (Signal Lives).

1 comments about Chasing the Dragon: A Veteran Journalist's Firsthand Account of the 1946-9 Chinese Revolution.

1. Chasing the Dragon
   
   Rowan worked in China from 1946 to 1949 while Mao Zedong and Chiang Kia-shek battled each other for control of that nation, after the Japanese were defeated and left the mainland. Rowan first delivered relief supplies for UNNRA and eventually fulfilled his dream to be a full-time journalist. He wrote for Time-Life and later, Fortune. His lively accounts of those years bring readers into the scenes. Rowan reveals warts Americans probably never dreamed existed among Chinese leaders.
   
   Rowan investigated the evolution and effects of a Chinese civil war that ended with the Communist take-over and Chiang's flight to Taiwan. Along with Chiang and his army hundreds of tons of Chinese gold and treasures arrived in Taiwan.
   
   An easy to read, gripping story of an important time, this book helps the reader understand the beginnings of today's China.
   © Geni J. White

No comments about Gerald W. Johnson: From Southern Liberal to National Conscience (Southern Biography Series).

3 comments about The Beginning of the End: The Crippling Disadvantage of a Happy Irish Childhood.

1. This is a terrific book. Deftly written, it is funny, moving, provocative and informative. It describes the author's upbringing in Belfast as the city descended into the violence known as 'The Troubles.' Although outsiders saw this essentially as sectarian, of Catholics against Protestants, Ellis describes a more complex situation, where Protestants could also oppose the division of Ireland and the allegiance of the north to the Crown. His friend Ronnie Bunting, a Protestant like Ellis, symbolised this complexity. Bunting joined a fanatical Republican group and became a ruthless terrorist, responsible for many deaths, including the murder of one Mrs Thatcher's favourite supporters. Ellis's relationship with Bunting dominates the book. Ellis struggled through childhood and his teenage years to break free of Bunting, which he knew he had to do. Only as a young adult embarking on what became a successful career as a journalist did he succeed. By now Bunting was doomed. He was later shot in his home in Belfast by masked men, whom Ellis believes were probably British special forces. This is a book about growing up, family, friendship, ambition and Ireland. I recommend it without reservation.



2. A terrific book. I agree with Mr Moore. It can be read on many levels: as a description of childhood and the challenges of the teenage years and early adulthood; as a treatise on friendship; as a rites of passage, without the glibness of Hollywood, and as an examination of The Troubles. I recommend it wholeheartedly. My only criticism is of Amazon, who do not appear to have not priced it. I had to order the book direct from the publishers in Scotland. This is a pity as it deserves to be available easily to readers in the States.



3. I was delighted to read Walter Ellis's book and have since passed it on to several friends. All agree that it is beautifully written and shows Ellis as a master of his craft, both as storyteller and narrator. I just wish more people had the opportunity to share it as it is a book which will touch the heart regardless of whether or not you have lived or visited Ulster during that period. It is refreshing also to read the Protestant view of the troubles seen, as it were, at first hand. Interesting also, as a female, to view the world through his eyes. I laughed and I cried for these are times which will never be seen again. I, for one, would love to read the sequel.
   
   Elaine Somers

No comments about Bob Broeg: Memories of a Hall of Fame Sportswriter.

No comments about Heart of Gold: A Book.

No comments about Strange Intelligence: Memoirs of Naval Secret Service (Classics of Espionage).

No comments about The Unknown Orwell and Orwell: The Transformation: The Transformation.

No comments about Charles Godfrey Leland a Biography.