Some Other Rainbow [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

John McCarthy (Author), Jill Morrell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1998

On April 17, 1986, John McCarthy, a British television journalist, was kidnapped in Beirut and held for 5 years. During those years he lived in squalor and was cut off from everybody he knew and loved, including Jill Morrell, the girl he was going to marry. For Jill, the 5 years of John's captivity were a different kind of hell—the initial shock and horror, and then the gradual acceptance that all their plans had been shattered. For 5 years she battled with the mandarins of the Foreign Office and worked ceaselessly on behalf of all the British hostages in the Middle East, until the extraordinary day in August 1991 when John McCarthy stepped down from an aeroplane at RAF Lyneham.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Biography for Jill Morrell. Jill Morrell was born and brought up in Yorkshire. She, too, graduated from the University of Hull and subsequently worked at UPITN. She lives in London. Biography for John McCarthy. As a journalist in television news John McCarthy was sent on his first foreign assignment to Beirut in 1986 aged twenty-nine. His career was abruptly cut short by militiamen who kidnapped and held him captive for five and half years. Since his release he has written four books - Some Other Rainbow (with Jill Morrell), about his hostage years, Island Race (with Sandi Toksvig), an account of their circumnavigation of Britain, and Between Extremes (with Brian Keenan), a journey through Chile and his latest, A Ghost Upon Your Path. John McCarthy continues to work in both radio and television. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: BBC Books (December 31, 1998)
• ISBN-10: 0563393165
• ISBN-13: 978-0563393160
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,608,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A thought-provoking introspective of a long-term hostage., October 26, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Some Other Rainbow (Hardcover)

This book, co-authored by ex-Beirut hostage John McCarthy and his (now ex-) girlfriend Jill Morrell, gives a fascingating insight into the human condition when placed under stresses which would be difficult for any of us to contemplate.

John was held hostage in Lebanon for several years, during which time he was forced to find imaginative ways to pass seemingly endless time, while being constantly afraid for his life and the lives of his friends and co-hostages. His account of his emerging friendship with Belfast-born Brian Keenan is moving and funny, and their friendship continues, several years after their release, to this day. While any human contact was welcomed, not all of the hostages got on with each other, as evidenced by McCarthy's relationship with British envoy Terry Waite, who McCarthy found arrogant.

The sections on the campaign for John's release are less facinating than the first-person account of life as a hostage, but still make interesting reading.

A less deeply introspective account than Keenan's "An Evil Cradling", this is nonetheless a fascinating relation of a story none of us would wish to be able to tell.