Come the Revolution A Memoir

by Mitchell, Alex

• ISBN13: 9781742233079
• ISBN10: 1742233074
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-01-01
• Publisher: NewSouth

Summary

A rollicking tale of chain-smoking newspapermen, union leaders, revolutionaries, crooked cops, corrupt politicians, spies, dictators, and ordinary working people, this is the memoir of political journalist Alex Mitchell, who worked on several newspapers around Australia before landing in Fleet Street in the 1960s. Full of vivid anecdotes about the lives of an extraordinary range of peopleincluding Yasser Arafat, Muammar Gadafi, Saddam Hussein, and Vanessa Redgravethis narrative demonstrates how Mitchell's Sunday Timesinvestigative team exposed Soviet double agent Kim Philby and how the journalist became a full-time political activist. Laying bare his life and loves as well as his past and politics with the flair of a born storyteller, Mitchell is unafraid to ask the hard questions about the world or about himself.

Table of Contents

Author's note	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. viii
Prologue	p. xi
A cadet on the Townsville Bulletin	p. 3
Going outback: The Mount Isa Mail	p. 24
On Murdoch's Sydney paper	p. 45
View from the Canberra press gallery	p. 70
Waking up in swinging London	p. 91
Halcyon days at the Sunday Times	p. 107
Chance to be a war correspondent	p. 119
Exit from Thomson House	p. 139
Tales of Jerome D Hoffman	p. 159
The Man Who Stole Ugands	p. 117
Introduction to Leon Trotsky	p. 201
Life of the party	p. 220
The revival of Trotskyism	p. 243
The state within the state	p. 260
Police raid on the Red House	p. 278
How the GPU murdered Trotsky	p. 297
Opening doors to the Arab world	p. 322
High Court - high farce	p. 353
Comrades Vanessa and Corin	p. 366
Ambassador at large	p. 386
Faith, hope and charity	p. 407
The political fallout begins	p. 422
Breaking the faith	p. 437
The WRP implodes	p. 450
Decision time	p. 485
On reflection	p. 503
Notes	p. 518
Select bibliography	p. 524
Index	p. 527
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.