Product Description

'Dawn, and as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plain outside Korem it lights up a biblical famine, now, in the Twentieth Century.' Those words opened Michael Buerk's first report on the Ethiopian famine for the 6 o'clock news on October 24th 1984. His reports sent shock waves round the world. The Live Aid concert, a direct consequence of Bob Geldof watching that broadcast, was watched by half the planet.Michael Buerk has reported on some of the biggest stories in our lifetime: the Flixborough chemical plant fire, the Birmingham pub bombing, Lockerbie. He was in Buenos Aires at the start of the Falklands War; he reported the death throes of apartheid in South Africa.He was the face of the BBC flagship evening news for many years and has fronted everything from the popular BBC1 series 999 to the erudite Radio 4 programme "The Moral Maze". He has won every major award and is universally admired and respected for his intelligent and honest journalism. Here, he also reveals the private Michael Buerk, his bigamist father, his long and happy marriage to Christine and his delight at fatherhood.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #341742 in Books
• Published on: 2005-07-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
'An exceedingly good book' - Michael Parkinson. 'Michael Buerk is one of the most famous of the BBC television presenters and reporters. He emerges from the pages of his autobiography as a decent and likable man.., Amusing and touching... A most entertaining read' - Sunday Telegraph. 'For Buerk, the point of television reporting is "to get hold of a story and then tell it well". He is a master of the art, In The Road Taken he applies the same skills to his own tale' - Daily Telegraph.

Daily Mail
‘Brilliantly written… Uproarious… The story of his extraordinary life’

Michael Parkinson
‘An exceedingly good book’

Customer Reviews

Desperately moving
I have read many autobiographies over the years, but few have touched me in quite the way Buerk's has. He has written from the heart about his experiences in places like Northern Ireland, Ethiopia and South Africa - his chapters about Ethiopia in particular are gut-wrenchingly sad - and yet has managed to fully convey his humility and sense of humour throughout. Quite simply this is a superb account of a very interesting and unusual life. Thoroughly recommended.

Brilliant
Wiity, self-effacing, facinating, gripping, very moving in places. A great insight on journalism, and on reporting from the vilest places on earth. Excellent read. Buy it !

Analysis Review of 2The Road Taken
I have to say that i don't read many books in english anymore as i have been so interested in becoming fluent in french, though was so taken a back when i saw Michael Buerke's autobiography on a shelf in Waterstones. he has always been an idol to me as he is in the profession that i dream of being in. Travelling the world and being posted to different countries far away from home for years at a time. learning different cultures and languages at the same time. I was so excited when i was able to get myself into reading this excellent,intellectually written book. It is not aimed at my sort of audience as i am only fifteen, though i think some people who are perhaps like me would enjoy it. Just because we are only fifteen doesn't mean to say that were not intellectually capable of comprehending what this remarkable man has written. I haven't finnished reading it as i am about three quarters of the way through, but have read enough to tell the world that this remarkably written book is well worth you reading. Thank-you so muchMichael Buerk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!