no ordinary assignment book review

Advertisement

Supported by

A Brutally Honest Exploration of What It Means to Be a War Reporter

In “No Ordinary Assignment,” the correspondent Jane Ferguson is candid about the fears and frustrations that come with her calling.

• Share full article

By Elizabeth Becker

• Apple Books
• Barnes and Noble
• Books-A-Million
• Bookshop.org

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.

NO ORDINARY ASSIGNMENT: A Memoir , by Jane Ferguson

“Afghanistan was the Vietnam of our era,” Jane Ferguson writes in her memoir, “No Ordinary Assignment.” She sees her generation of reporters as descendants of the men and women who covered the first war the United States lost to a largely rural Asian nation. In both cases, America had the overwhelming military advantage of a superpower’s arsenal and the political disadvantage of a superpower’s hubris.

The similarities end there. Ferguson and her 21st-century colleagues have had to navigate a world of wars far more complex and often more deadly than the ones that came before. By comparison, the war that journalists covered in Vietnam, while dangerous, resembled World War II set-piece battles.

Still, Ferguson always held her predecessors up as models. Her memoir is an engrossing chronicle of the costs and rewards of becoming like the women she saw delivering news of skirmishes and revolutions on TV. That Ferguson would become a war reporter who epitomizes this era is one of the anomalies of this compelling book.

She was born on the periphery of Europe in 1984 and raised on a grim farm in Northern Ireland during the final years of the Troubles. Her Protestant upbringing was marked by passages through Army checkpoints and occasional attacks on the village police station. Her indignation over the Troubles was easier to tamp down than her feelings of fear and anxiety at home, where her father withheld his affections and her mother’s volatile anger seemed “to center around a deep hatred of her children.”

Rather than rebel with drugs or escape to the bright lights of Belfast, Ferguson concentrated her considerable energy on school and field hockey. She also sought refuge with her Aunt Fanny, who lived in a serene cottage on the nearby County Down coast. Fanny encouraged her niece’s curiosity as she pored over the memoirs of war correspondents like Kate Adie. Ferguson recalls gathering with her family to hear Orla Guerin and Moira Stuart deliver the latest from conflict zones around the world. “All the men watched and listened in a way I knew they never would have listened to me over dinner,” she writes.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

NO ORDINARY ASSIGNMENT

by Jane Ferguson ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

A captivating, honest, and powerful attempt to do justice to the hardest stories to tell.

An award-winning war reporter recounts her remarkable career in some of the most dangerous places on the planet.

Ferguson begins in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. Her childhood was marked by cold, anxious tension within her family and her country. However, this “stint on high alert” primed her for a career built through grit, moxie, and substantial risk: reporting from the epicenters of some of the most catastrophic conflicts of our time—in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, and more. With vivid details and pointed reflection, her memoir draws readers into the world of war that exists beyond the “bang bang” of most news coverage. Chronicling her journey on bumpy mountain roads and through tense military checkpoints, embedding with soldiers and visiting makeshift field hospitals, Ferguson clearly demonstrates the devastating, oft-overlooked impact of war on civilians from every side. “There are always so many more,” she writes, “who suffer and die due to the unintended consequences of conflict: the collapse of economies and governments, and with these failures, the chances for any decent public health—sanitation, nutrition, or medical care.” She is an expert storyteller, conveying the fear and anxiety of her many harrowing close calls and the heartbreak of so many of her personal interviews. Her story of building a career in war reporting has an equally powerful arc, as she shows how she went from feeling like an impostor, plagued by doubt and shame, to a quietly confident professional. The author also goes beyond any adrenaline-junkie stereotype with frank rumination that grants space to grapple with heart-wrenching emotional confrontations as well as the moral complexities of her own role. While acknowledging the particularities of being a woman in her position, including the prevalence of double standards, she does not allow herself to be reduced to them.

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

ISBN: 9780063272248

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Mariner Books

Review Posted Online: April 6, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | SURVIVORS & ADVENTURERS | WORLD | INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS | ISSUES & CONTROVERSIES

Share your opinion of this book

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

New York Times Bestseller

by Stephanie Johnson & Brandon Stanton illustrated by Henry Sene Yee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022

A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.

Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.

Pub Date: July 12, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2

Page Count: 192

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS & CELEBRITY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

More by Brandon Stanton

BOOK REVIEW

by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton photographed by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton ; photographed by Brandon Stanton

LOVE, PAMELA

by Pamela Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 31, 2023

A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.

The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.

According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that ." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy , which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.

Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023

ISBN: 9780063226562

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

More About This Book

SEEN & HEARD

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

• Commenting Policy
• Advanced Search

Dear Author

Romance, Historical, Contemporary, Paranormal, Young Adult, Book reviews, industry news, and commentary from a reader's point of view

REVIEW: No Ordinary Assignment by Jane Ferguson

From award-winning journalist Jane Ferguson, an unflinching memoir of ambition and war—from the Troubles to the fall of Kabul. In Northern Ireland in the 1980s and ‘90s, war was a secret, and young Jane Ferguson wanted to know the truth. For her, war was called the Troubles, bomb threats and military checkpoints on the way to school were commonplace, and an uncle’s gunshot wound in IRA crossfire was disguised as a cow kick. Jane developed a penchant for asking questions that cut through this culture of silence, while the unspoken tension in her village exploded into abuse and rage at home. An opportunity to study Arabic in Yemen after college came as a great relief, a ticket to a different, adventurous life—and to the very center of the story. Ferguson has since reported from nearly every war front around the globe—from Yemen and Syria during the Arab Spring, Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul, and Ukraine during Russia’s 2022 invasion—but her rise to the highest ranks of journalism has been anything but ordinary. As a scrappy one-woman reporting team, a borrowed camera her only equipment, networks often told her she simply had the wrong accent, even the wrong appearance. Still, her ambition to build a life in journalism on her own terms thrust her into harm’s way time and again. While other reporters chased “bang bang shoot ‘em up” stories, a different set of questions guided Ferguson’s work, ones that gave faces and names to the people experiencing these conflicts. In the face of grave violence and suffering, giving voice to civilian lives seemed a small act of justice, no matter the risks. For fans of Samantha Power, Marie Colvin, and Ariel Levy, Ferguson’s bold debut chronicles her unlikely journey from bright, inquisitive child to intrepid war correspondent from the front lines of the most dangerous conflicts and dire humanitarian crises of our time. 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.

I often find myself interested in reading autobiographies or memoirs of people doing things that I would or could never do. This is one of them. Jane Ferguson takes readers from her childhood in Northern Ireland with difficult (to put it mildly) parents through her years establishing herself in a job she knew she was born to do – finding ways to get to and report on war torn areas of the world and then get back home alive.

Anxiety – from living in The Troubles with the clashes of British soldiers and IRA gunmen plus bombs going off – follows Jane as she spends a scholarship year at a prestigious US boarding school, earns money at a chicken plant (CW- graphic), then Uni in York before finally traveling to Yemen to learn Arabic and fall in love with the country. None of that, though, would get her the job she coveted as a journalist.

It’s her own hustling and busking that lands her a cushy job in Dubai before she chucks it all by getting caught doing a side-hustle for another network. Al Jazeera English sends her to war torn Syria and Cairo (CW- Graphic) among other places before a shift in management coverage convinces her to quit. From then on, she must ferret out possible stories and angles then sell a network on paying her for her story. She makes a name for herself going to places that few others will, mostly based on local contacts who can help her past authorities determined to bar journalists.

It takes a certain type of person to feel the urge and answer the call to shine a light on what is going on in places where people are shooting at you and bombs are going off. Ferguson had that drive from early in her life when she saw that female journalists were among the few women to whom men would (sometimes) listen. To do her job, she often had to push down her (natural) fears and anxiety and deal with imposter syndrome. She also details an up-and-down romantic relationship as well as her love for various places such as Beirut, Sana’a, and Kabul.

As a blonde Westerner, she was often approached by people who wanted to show her things and tell her their truths which few other networks would cover. Jane was mainly interested in the people on the street rather than the “bang bang.” She does some soul searching and introspection about why she felt driven to do this job and fights with despair that she didn’t do the situations and people justice. The book is an intense first hand view of a job I couldn’t do and the toll it sometimes takes on those who do. B

Amazon BN Kobo Book Depository Google

Share this:

Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 25 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there's no TSTL characters and is currently reading more fantasy and SciFi.

My admiration for Jane Ferguson is miles high. Every single report from her is timely, shattering and essential to any understanding of global conflicts and the people most affected. Is this a difficult book to read, Jayne? I feel duty bound to honor her story, but wonder if I’m brave enough. Thanks.

@ Darlynne : Depending on your views of poultry be cautious about one page in particular regarding her time working before going to Uni. But be *very* cautious about her reports regarding her time in Syria and Egypt. What she gives details about lasts only a page or two in each instance but … yeah, she doesn’t hold back and it’s horrible. She also talks about her later time in Sana’a when the lack of food was beginning to cause starvation. You can kind of anticipate when these moments are going to occur though and if you can skim ahead a page or two, I think you can make it.

Oh and her parents are pieces of work. Each one in a different way. That is more woven through her account of her childhood and if anyone has suffered parental (emotional) abuse, I’d skip those sections.

Thanks for the warnings. I should read this.

@ Darlynne : Bonne chance my friend. It is worth reading.

FTC Disclaimer

We do not purchase all the books we review here. Some we receive from the authors, some we receive from the publisher, and some we receive through a third party service like Net Galley . Some books we purchase ourselves. Login

Discover more from Dear Author

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Type your email…

Continue reading

No Ordinary Assignment by Jane Ferguson

Brendan’s alternate tagline for no ordinary assignment:.

Safety? Sounds boring.

Quick synopsis:

The story of war journalist, Jane Ferguson.

Fact for Non-History People:

Sana’a, Yemen, is believed to be the one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Fact for History Nerds:

The Somali language wasn’t formally written down until the 1970s.

My Take on No Ordinary Assignment:

Memoirs can be the trickiest of non-fiction categories to write. Write something which is too meek, and you may sound like a phony. Write something too boastful and you sound arrogant. Then, the challenge of how to tell stories which sometime don’t connect perfectly into a cohesive whole. Jane Ferguson’s No Ordinary Assignment masterfully avoids all these pitfalls by being honest and insightful while recognizing just how insane some of these experiences are.

I can’t think of many books whose first chapters are so amazingly told. Jane’s examination of her youth in Northern Ireland during the Troubles sets the tone perfectly. Jane reveals herself as someone who knows where her drive and quirks come from. When chapter one finished, I thought, “I know why this person would go on to do what she does.” The last chapter about the fall of Kabul could probably be its own book. It is the culmination of all the chapters before and a fitting finish to this memoir even though Jane has a lot more life to live.

The chapters between these bookends (pun intended!) are uniformly excellent. The key for me is Jane’s view of herself. She sees her (sometimes imagined) shortcomings and isn’t afraid to point them out and own them. Conversely, she is not so humble as to deny that it takes real courage to do what she did. It’s a must read.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Mariner Books.)

A fantastic book for all audiences. Buy it here!

If You Liked This Try:

• Jennette McCurdy, I’m Glad My Mom Died
• Mike Rinder, A Billion Years

Brendan Dowd

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• Biographies & Memoirs
• Leaders & Notable People

Sorry, there was a problem.

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required .

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

Image Unavailable

• To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

No Ordinary Assignment: A Memoir Hardcover – July 11, 2023

"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. 

• Print length 336 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Mariner Books
• Publication date July 11, 2023
• Dimensions 6 x 1.09 x 9 inches
• ISBN-10 0063272245
• ISBN-13 978-0063272248
• See all details

Products related to this item

From the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

"An engrossing chronicle of the costs and rewards of becoming like the women she saw delivering news of skirmishes and revolutions on TV. That Ferguson would become a war reporter who epitomizes this era is one of the anomalies of this compelling book. . . What raises No Ordinary Assignment above many other memoirs is the way it shows Ferguson's refusal to take shortcuts in her reporting. She fully lived her stories, experiencing the wars with the people she covered and writing with the kind of intimate knowledge that is prized by novelists and historians.”  — New York Times Book Review , Editor's Choice

“This is a must-read for anyone who aspires to be a journalist or loves to read and understand great journalism.” — Katie Couric

“With vivid details and pointed reflection, her memoir draws readers into the world of war that exists beyond the “bang bang” of most news coverage… Ferguson clearly demonstrates the devastating, oft-overlooked impact of war on civilians from every side… She is an expert storyteller… A captivating, honest, and powerful attempt to do justice to the hardest stories to tell.” — Kirkus Reviews   (starred review)

“For all the upheaval and conflict she’s seen, Jane Ferguson has never lost sight of the ordinary men and women caught in the middle of it all. This is the story of her journey, and it's told with breadth and verve and humanity.” — Dexter Filkins, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of  The Forever War

“Jane Ferguson’s life story is as extraordinary as her assignments. She takes the reader on an intimate and at times surprising journey from her childhood in conflict-torn Northern Ireland, through wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan until finally ending up in New York. Her prose is vivid; her narrative full of insight; and her stories infused with raw emotion as she bears witness to the brutality and destruction and memorializes the remarkable people she encountered along her way. This book should be savored and appreciated, not skimmed.” — Dr. Fiona Hill, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and New York Times bestselling author of There Is Nothing For You Here

“So much has been packed into this young foreign correspondent’s remarkable life, you’d think she’s far older than she is. From Ireland to Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, and Ukraine, there’s hardly a war zone she hasn’t covered. But what most draws you in to this finely written memoir are the raw accounts of a childhood short on love and long on criticism that no doubt pushed her in the direction of a high-wire career, and, along the way, a soulful search to understand who, really, is Jane Ferguson?” — Judy Woodruff, former anchor of PBS NewsHour

“[ No Ordinary Assignment is] a standout, the best memoir I’ve read since Michelle Obama’s Becoming . . . Ferguson is an utterly compelling narrator because she’s startlingly honest and vulnerable. . .As talented and brave as she is as a TV correspondent, she is that rare person in TV who can really write. She knows how to create distance. What to put in, what to leave out. How to win a reader’s trust. How to make us feel that we are with her on extraordinary travels. How to inspire women everywhere to dream and to stick to our guns.” — Vicky Ward, New York Times bestselling author of Kushner, Inc.

"War correspondent Jane Ferguson’s courage and grit come through in this memoir, as she charts her lonely childhood in Northern Ireland and her determination to pursue journalism. The descriptions of her wartime reporting provide a dramatic view of conflicts in Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan." — Christian Science Monitor

“ No Ordinary Assignment is an intimate portrait of a journalist coming into her own. For some of us that happens in boardrooms; for Jane Ferguson, it happened in war zones. Her memoir is a thrill to read and an inspiring example of what can happen when we confront fear and great risk with purpose.” — Pat Michell, author of Becoming a Dangerous Woman and cofounder of TEDWomen

“Growing up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, Jane Ferguson gained a visceral, instinctive understanding of conflict. She brought an inquisitive eye and innate empathy to the greatest stories that have defined our age, from the wars in Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Her courageous book is an honest, searing examination of these events—and of the toll they inflict on journalists who give up so much to keep telling the stories of those who often can’t speak for themselves.” — Yaroslav Trofimov, author of The Siege of Mecca and chief foreign-affairs correspondent at Wall Street Journal

“Jane Ferguson's gripping memoir,  No Ordinary Assignment , traces with compassion, insight, and honesty her career as a foreign correspondent… Astute, compassionate, and detailed,  No Ordinary Assignment  is a thoughtful eyewitness account from a reporter whose perspective is gracious and wise.” — Shelf Awareness

"Really important, brave reporting." — Nicholas Kristof

 "Jane Ferguson's breathtaking memoir takes us inside the savage wars of the last two decades with greater immediacy and compassion than any news report. Her inspiring and sometimes nerve jangling account shows what it takes to bring us the news: tremendous courage and determination, qualities she has in spades. Whether dreaming up an adventuresome life beyond Belfast or facing down murderous Yemeni warlords or Syrian torturers - or indeed network resistance - she is unflinching. Her book will forever alter the way you look at the news."  — Kati Marton, New York Times bestselling author of The Chancellor

About the Author

Jane Ferguson is a special correspondent for PBS NewsHour . Her reporting has won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, the George Polk Award, and the Aurora Humanitarian Journalism Award, among others. A frequent contributor to the New Yorker , she lives in New York City. 

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books (July 11, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0063272245
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063272248
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.09 x 9 inches
• #150 in Journalist Biographies
• #1,402 in Women's Biographies
• #3,806 in Memoirs (Books)

About the author

Jane ferguson.

Jane Ferguson is a New York City-based international correspondent, war reporter and national security and foreign affairs expert. Her award-winning journalism has spanned the US, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. She has also been a contributor to The New Yorker for five years, providing reporting and analysis on US foreign policy, counterterrorism, and conflicts in Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq.

When Ferguson joined PBS NewsHour, she was a Middle East-based International Correspondent reporting and producing magazine-length, in-depth stories for the show. She went on to become the show’s main overseas reporter and the most award-winning journalist in the shows near 50-year history.

She has reported from Afghanistan extensively for the network, covering women's rights, ethnic tensions, the rise of militias in the years running up to the Taliban takeover. As Trump negotiated with the Taliban, Ferguson travelled exclusively to Wardak province to interview senior Taliban commanders on their plans for a return to power. Two years later, as they closed in on the capital, Ferguson once again filmed global exclusives with all sides of the war, from famed Tajik rebel commander Ahmad Massoud in the Panjshir Valley, to the Taliban’s elite ‘red brigade’ units just outside Kabul. In August of 2021 she was in Kabul as it fell to the Taliban and became the only US broadcaster at Kabul airport as the biggest mass evacuation of civilians since Saigon took place and US Marines struggled to cope with the dangerous crowds. Ferguson’s reporting from Afghanistan was recognized with an Overseas Press Club of America Peter Jennings Award, an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton, a Gracie and a Peabody.

In 2018, Ferguson was the first international journalist to gain exclusive access to the rebel-held capital of Yemen, where a US-backed, Saudi-led coalition was waging war against Iranian-backed rebels, and enforcing a strict blockade. By dressing in Yemeni women's clothing and traveling with a native family she was able to smuggle across the front lines, to the northern half of the country, where journalists were banned by Saudi-allied forces. Ferguson’s reports exposed the devastating extent of the famine and humanitarian crisis caused by the war, including the starvation of tens of thousands of children and babies. Her reporting from Yemen won an Emmy, an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Silver Baton and a George Polk.

Ferguson led PBS’s coverage of the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria in 2016 and 2017, embedding with Iraqi special forces and US-backed Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters. Before reporting for PBS, Ferguson was one of Al Jazeera English’s leading international reporters covering the Arab Spring revolutions and subsequent conflicts. She was among the first foreign journalists to be smuggled into rebel held Homs city in Syria where she reported on the Assad Government's brutal crackdown against protestors in 2012. After that, she went on to report extensively for Al Jazeera across the globe, covering wars, revolutions and humanitarian stories in countries including Bangladesh, Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Kenya and Lebanon. During her time as Al Jazeera’s Afghanistan correspondent, from 2013 through 2014, Ferguson lived and worked in Kabul and secured the first ever media embed with Afghan Special Forces as US troops prepared for the Obama Administration’s drawdown.

From 2009 through 2011 Ferguson was a contracted international correspondent in the Abu Dhabi-based the Middle East hub. From there she reported from Somalia, Yemen and the African Sahel on Al Qaeda linked rebel groups and US military partnerships in the region. Ferguson was the first US broadcaster to report from inside Somalia since the UN pulled out in the 1990s, embedding with Ugandan and Somalia forces in Mogadishu as major offensives pushed militants out of the city. Before working in TV, Ferguson was a business print reporter based in Dubai and covering major markets and industries in the region. Before moving to Dubai in 2008 after college, she lived in Yemen where she studied Arabic, which she speaks fluently.

Since 2017, alongside her reporting for PBS, Ferguson has regularly contributed to The New Yorker, with features, analysis and field reporting as well as more personal reflections as a writer on the road. Her writing focuses on war crimes, humanitarian crises, US foreign policy and the diplomatic backchannels and context to conflicts today.

Her work is regularly supported by The Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and Ferguson often speaks at public events and journalism schools across the US on behalf of the Pulitzer Center about the importance of quality reporting and rigorous investigative journalism.

Ferguson is a regular guest professor of journalism at Princeton University. In 2020 and 2023 she was invited by Princeton to design and teach a semester-long course on war reporting.

In July 2023 her memoir, No Ordinary Assignment, was published by HarperCollins.

Ferguson attended The Lawrenceville School, near Princeton, New Jersey and holds a BA in Politics from the University of York in England.

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 78% 16% 4% 1% 0% 78%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 78% 16% 4% 1% 0% 16%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 78% 16% 4% 1% 0% 4%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 78% 16% 4% 1% 0% 1%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 78% 16% 4% 1% 0% 0%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the memoir compelling, exciting, and a great read for curious minds. They describe the pacing as thoughtful, fascinating, and excellent. Readers praise the writing quality as superb, well-written, and authentic. They appreciate the honesty and surprising transparency.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the memoir compelling, exciting, and a fearless adventure. They say it's a great book for curious minds, inspirational, and worth their time. Readers also mention the book is a fascinating self-examination and retrospection of their young lives.

"This book was one of the best books I read all year. Jane Ferguson is courageous, bold, and graceful all at the same time...." Read more

"...The stories are very enlightening and I applaud her work." Read more

"Jane Ferguson is an honest, compassionate storyteller . She made me relive and reconsider the events she reported...." Read more

"...Her book is a fascinating self examination and report card of her young life as an international war/conflict journalist...." Read more

Customers find the pacing of the book to be fast. They also say it's an excellent and thoughtful account by a thoughtful and articulate journalist. Readers mention the memoir is a powerful and meaningful commentary on many significant events of the past twenty years.

"...Jane Ferguson is courageous, bold, and graceful all at the same time...." Read more

"...It is a powerful and meaningful commentary on many significant events of the past twenty years and is a significant account by a very thoughtful..." Read more

"...She seems so brave and so graceful at the same time. This is her memoir. It is supremely well-written...." Read more

"Saw Ferguson interviewed on PBS. My initial thoughts were, she is very cute and very young. Ordered her book...." Read more

Customers find the writing quality of the book superb, gifted, and authentic. They also say it's readable and memorable.

"...Jane Ferguson is courageous, bold , and graceful all at the same time...." Read more

"...years and is a significant account by a very thoughtful and articulate journalist ...." Read more

"...This is her memoir. It is supremely well-written ...." Read more

"This book was well written and very interesting...." Read more

Customers find the book honest and surprising.

"...She tells her story as if she is telling it to her best friend, with honesty and surprising transparency...." Read more

"Jane Ferguson is an honest , compassionate storyteller. She made me relive and reconsider the events she reported...." Read more

"As captivating as her courageous journalism, Jane Ferguson’s honest and deeply-felt memoir is, at once, both a refresher course on Middle East..." Read more

" Honest and fascinating portrait of a brilliant and compassionate woman. I have always enjoyed her news reports and this background is a great read." Read more

Customers find the author's courage undeniable.

"This book was one of the best books I read all year. Jane Ferguson is courageous , bold, and graceful all at the same time...." Read more

"Driven, courageous and passionate about each conflict she dove into, a must to hear the truth...." Read more

"A deeply compelling and empathetic memoir by a courageous and seasoned war correspondent takes her from growing up during the Troubles in Northern..." Read more

• Sort reviews by Top reviews Most recent Top reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. please try again later..

Top reviews from other countries

• About Amazon
• Investor Relations
• Amazon Devices
• Amazon Science
• Sell products on Amazon
• Sell on Amazon Business
• Sell apps on Amazon
• Become an Affiliate
• Advertise Your Products
• Self-Publish with Us
• Host an Amazon Hub
• › See More Make Money with Us
• Amazon Business Card
• Shop with Points
• Reload Your Balance
• Amazon Currency Converter
• Amazon and COVID-19
• Your Account
• Your Orders
• Shipping Rates & Policies
• Returns & Replacements
• Manage Your Content and Devices

• Conditions of Use
• Privacy Notice
• Consumer Health Data Privacy Disclosure
• Your Ads Privacy Choices

Book Review: ‘No Ordinary Assignment’ proves importance of journalists

Sep 1, 2023 | A Great Read | 2 comments

No Ordinary Assignment (HarperCollins, 2023) is almost an understated title for Jane Ferguson’s memoir.

Ferguson is an award-winning journalist who has traveled from one war-torn country to the next all in the name of providing viewers the truth.

Ferguson grew-up in Northern Ireland where gunfire and political unrest were the norm.

Today, she is a special correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and a contributor to the New Yorker.

Her personal journey is worth noting—she had humble beginnings, had to prove herself as a woman, and didn’t take no for an answer.

It’s sad to think 38-year-old women are still having to break barriers, having to fit a certain physical image to be on the air, and that they are not taken as seriously as male colleagues.

While the book isn’t a feminist rant, it does point out the realities of the news business—especially television.

What No Ordinary Assignment also offers readers is a look at war-torn regions of the world that don’t always make the front pages of U.S. newspapers or the lead story on TV unless it’s something that involves the U.S. like the fall of Kabul.

Ferguson points out where the U.S. media fell short in telling foreign stories.

She explains why we all need to be paying attention to conflicts around the world.

I was enthralled with this book. Ferguson’s personal story is gripping, while the reporting she has done is even more captivating. If this book doesn’t convince you of the need for foreign correspondents and the necessity to support quality journalism, well, I don’t know what will.

I will have to put this on my reading list.

This looks like a must read for me. Thanks for the heads up.

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

• A Great Read
• Destinations
• Eat & Drink
• Expressions

Recent Comments

that looks so cool. I need to take time and to something fun like that. Thanks for the story

Love this, and I agree Jill. I was giddy to see them.

There is something about otters that is utterly delightful.

Hi you can call me or email [email protected] 775 900-7300

Stay Connected

My instagram, kathrynreed0925.

Pin It on Pinterest

• Conversations
• Entrepreneurship

No Ordinary Assignment: A Memoir

Jane Ferguson is a special correspondent for PBS NewsHour . Her reporting has won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, the George Polk Award, and the Aurora Humanitarian Journalism Award, among others. She is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker .

Below, Jane shares 5 key insights from her new book, No Ordinary Assignment: A Memoir . Listen to the audio version—read by Jane herself—in the Next Big Idea App.

1. Pay attention to what you loved as a child.

What drew your attention, what did you adore, and why do you think that was? Get to know who you were back then and you will know something more about what makes you happy now. Is it sports, stories, photography, engines, cars, travel? Connect the dots and find something related to that.

For me, as a little girl, it was storytelling. It was also foreign affairs, as I was a bit of a dork, but also travel, writing, and television.

2. Always have a final goal in mind, but remember that master plans are not necessary.

Master plans may actually be counterproductive. All you need is a goal, very clear in your mind. Focus on the role you want, the life you want, what that will feel like and the next step forward. Everything else in between, you can deal with as it appears.

“Focus on the role you want, the life you want, what that will feel like and the next step forward.”

This leaves you flexible enough to see and seize opportunities when they appear and evolve and follow your own path. When I was building a career in international reporting, there were many times when I had no idea how I was going to get a job somewhere. I often failed, and faced relentless amounts of rejection. The way to bounce back from that was to find the next step forward. Just one step and I was on my way again.

3. Excellence is key.

We live in an era of fast success, with the Mark Zuckerbergs of this world, and seemingly overnight successes. Young people are bombarded with the idea that if you are not a breakout star, you are somehow falling behind. The Top 25 Under 25 and 30 Under 30 Lists are total nonsense. Ignore them.

There is no gaming the system and overnight success is a myth. Anytime I’ve seen overnight success, it doesn’t last. The best way to succeed, and the only way to build truly authentic success at what you do, is to be undeniably brilliant at it. Seek excellence within yourself for the sake of knowing you are masterful at your craft. Study it. Study how others do it. Work on getting to be the best and most skilled, and this will slowly but most certainly be noticed. When the success comes, it will feel all the more fulfilling.

While working on becoming a journalist, I was not working within the structure of a news organization. I was learning by myself as a freelancer. I studied other more senior correspondents’ scripts, watching the evening news reports and transcribing their voices so I could figure out how they’d structured it. I watched how sequences of shots were filmed and put together. I studied languages, did endless background research before interviews, and dug into the history of everywhere I was reporting from. Each and every year, I wanted to see my own skills and my own reporting improving exponentially. The only falling behind there is is not getting better at what you do.

4. Do not compete with anyone other than yourself.

Learn from others. Study them. Take what is helpful in terms of their experience, but remind yourself that you are not competing with others. You only compete with yourself. When you do that, no one can compete with you.

In the earlier parts of my career, I would tie myself in knots wondering if I was going to be able to keep up with the career trajectories of other correspondents. Finally, I began to not think about them much at all. Instead, I recognized my only job was to keep moving forward on the path that was my own, reporting the stories that mattered to me regardless of what others were doing. I followed the angles and places that drew me away from the dramatic “bang, bang” stories, and stopped worrying about my career. From then one, I just got on with the work.

“As I stopped focusing on what others were doing, I had become a better storyteller.”

At dinner in Beirut one night, years ago, my friend told me they had noticed this shift in me. “I was watching you on the TV the other night and I thought, there you are. That’s Jane.” As I stopped focusing on what others were doing, I had become a better storyteller. I was more myself and more authentic. Run your own race and remember what Ram Dass said, “Treat everyone you meet like God in drag.”

5. Remember that, beyond your desire to live a big life, to be successful by most tangible measures, and to reach your potential, your work will always need to be of service to the world.

Ask yourself what service you are providing in the world. There must be a bigger dimension to what you are doing, that higher-level perspective. Be humble and be additive. The world doesn’t owe you a career. You are privileged to do what you do, so make it count, and always remember why you are doing it.

In my life and work, people often thank me for what I do. They suggest that only someone as brave as me would dare to go to these places and how few of us there must be. The truth is, newsrooms are full of young, talented, driven, and skilled journalists desperate for the opportunity to get out on assignment. I have been one. When I’m doing my work, I remember what a privilege it is to do it. The best way to acknowledge that privilege and do it justice is to remember you are to be of service to this world. That’s also the only real way to love what you do and build a meaningful career.

To listen to the audio version read by author Jane Ferguson, download the Next Big Idea App today:

Download the Next Big Idea App

Also in Magazine

If you’re ready to lift your spirits and look forward to brighter days ahead, we recommend these seven hopeful reads.

Why it’s urgent that we all become irreplaceable.

Important cases can come from surprising places.