No Ordinary Assignment by Jane Ferguson

NO ORDINARY ASSIGNMENT is a memoir from Jane Ferguson, Peabody and Emmy award-winning reporter for the PBS NewsHour. Beginning with reflections on her childhood and the troubles in Northern Ireland Ferguson says she understands “now how the crack of bullets echoes long through the years, triggering a cascade of tragic events in individual lives.” Her bravery is often manifested in her news reporting and she relates this to the anxiety and she faced when young, writing, “my ability to make peace with fear, to let it hitch a ride along with my life, began under that staircase in my childhood house.” Although she writes about being inspired by reporters like Martha Gellhorn, Kate Adie, Dervla Murphy, and Gertrude Bell, one readily senses her own inner strength and resilience – the ability to adapt that she showed as a scholarship attendee at an exclusive boarding school in the US as well as working on the factory floor and killing chickens back in Ireland the summer before college. NO ORDINARY ASSIGNMENT received a starred review from Kirkus and made me think of how small acts (a surprise check allowed her to pursue some post-graduate studies in Yemen) can have a big impact on others’ lives. Interested in foreign correspondents? See also And Then All Hell Broke Loose by Richard Engel which describes reporting from the Middle East and was published several years ago.