Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1974-2022 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
184 volumes, paper
Context area
Name of creator
Archival history
Content and structure area
Scope and content
These notebooks are used by John Simpson and he takes them with him on assignments both at home and abroad. They contain research, questions, notes, interviews, and drafts of pieces for the BBC News on a range of subjects. They cover domestic UK politics but mainly concentrate on the major trouble spots of the world including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Zimbabwe. Most books contain a range of subject matter some of which is hard to separate out and so the descriptions are not an exhaustive list of the contents of each book. Some books just cover one subject.
John Simpson's reporting career has included the following:
(1) Feb 1979 - he travelled back from Paris to Tehran with the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini. The return of the Ayatollah heralded the Iranian Revolution, as millions lined the streets of the capital
(2) 1989 - he avoided bullets at the Beijing Tiananmen Square massacre
(3) 1989 - he reported the fall of the Ceauşescu regime in Bucharest
(4) he spent the early part of the 1991 Gulf War in Baghdad, before being expelled by the authorities
(5) 1999 - he reported from Belgrade during the Kosovo War. He was one of a few journalists to remain in the Yugoslav capital after the authorities, at the start of the conflict, expelled those from NATO countries
(6) 2001 - he was one of the first reporters to enter Afghanistan in 2001, disguising himself by wearing a burqa, and subsequently Kabul in the US-led invasion of Afghanistan [the burqa is held in the College Archive]
(7) he was hunted by Robert Mugabe's forces in Zimbabwe [the pink baseball cap that he wore during this time is int he College Archive]
(8) 2003 - while reporting from Northern Iraq in the 2003 Iraq war, he was injured in a friendly fire incident when a U.S. warplane bombed the convoy of American and Kurdish forces he was with. The attack was caught on film: a member of Simpson's crew was killed and he himself was left deaf in one ear [the bullet proof vest he wore during this attack is held in the College Archive]