Invisible Walls

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From Kindertransport survivor to pioneering Foreign Correspondent at the Guardian, Hella Pick's life is extraordinary. Arriving in Britain as a child refugee from Austria in 1939, she became a trailblazer for women in journalism. Over nearly four decades, she reported on significant global events, starting in West Africa, then America, and extensively in Europe. Her thirty-five years with the Guardian included coverage of the end of Empire in West Africa, President Kennedy's assassination, Martin Luther King's march from Selma to Montgomery, the Vietnam peace negotiations, the 1968 student revolt in France, the birth of Poland's Solidarity movement, and the closing stages of the Cold War. A casual request for coffee on a Soviet ship led to a conversation with Mikhail Gorbachev, while an interview with Willy Brandt developed into a friendship that helped her confront Germany's Nazi past. Her narrative serves as a call to uphold professionalism in journalism amidst the challenges posed by social media, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. The book recounts her journey as a Kindertransport survivor who gained the trust—and sometimes friendship—of world leaders, while also addressing personal heartaches and her struggle with Jewish identity, revealing how her achievements as a journalist coexisted with a persistent sense of insecurity.