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  • Our Friends in Beijing

  • By: John Simpson
  • Narrated by: John Simpson
  • Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (45 ratings)

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Our Friends in Beijing

By: John Simpson
Narrated by: John Simpson
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Summary

A thrillingly authentic novel about truth, power, politics and friendship, from one of our most revered and experienced foreign correspondents.

Old friends, new enemies.

Jon Swift is in trouble again. His journalism career is in freefall. He is too old to be part of the new world order, and he has never learned to suck up to those in charge. But experience has taught him to trust his instincts.

When, for the first time in years, Jon runs into Lin Lifeng in a café in Oxford, he wonders if the meeting is a coincidence. When Lin asks him to pass on a coded message, he knows it's not. Once a radical student who helped Jon broadcast the atrocities of Tiananmen Square, Lin is now a well-dressed party official with his own agenda.

Travelling to Beijing, Jon starts to follow a tangled web in which it is hard to know who are friends and who are enemies. As he ricochets across the country, Jon seeks to make sense of the ways in which China's past and present are colliding - and what that means for the future of the country and the world. Under the watchful eyes of an international network of spies, double-agents and politicians, all with a ruthless desire for power, Jon is in a high-stakes race to expose the truth, before it's too late.

©2021 Spin-Ghar Ltd (P)2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
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What listeners say about Our Friends in Beijing

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Looking forward to the next book

Well written & narrated. Great story & characters. Hard to put down. Interesting insights into modern China. Highly recommended.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Loved his narration

What a journey, I started this book and left it thinking it wasn’t for me.However I am so glad I picked it up again, I enjoyed it so much the story, John’s humour and his wonderful knack of storytelling, can’t wait to start his next book. Thank you John.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating from start to finish

This simply had me gripped by the story from start to end. John S has the most marvellous use of language and an excellent delivery when he reads.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

story okay, narration is awful

I purchased this based on Simpson's prowess as a reporter. As a writer he is okay but not as narrator. It's like someone reading the news - but badly. Can't continue listening to the monotone, as and seemingly unprepared naration - will be returning this and might try reading the book instead.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A predictable ending

At times too much background leading to a predictable ending. Insights interesting but I expected more.

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