Ronan Farrow has won accolades across multiple fields for his investigative reporting into Harvey Weinstein, the sexual abuse perpetrated by powerful men, and previous work in international law and development.

But how good is the Pulitzer prize-winning writer at impersonating a variety of accents from around the world? Thankfully we now know the answer, due to his perplexing decision to do just that.

In the audio version of his new book Catch and Kill – which exposes the methods used to protect serial predators – Farrow not only reads the text himself, but does the voices of a variety of people, as discovered by TV writer Craig Rowin.

So while the book contains a wide variety of scoops and unreported revelations, it also contains (at least) the following seven accents.

Australian

This should never have been attempted, but you have to admit it becomes quite good by the end. The opening is the most distressing, with the halted, breathy start to “I have” veering into what sounds like a Bostonian accent on “pretty hard”.

From there, Farrow’s impersonation of Australian journalist Dylan Howard – who, in an unrelated matter, has threatened him with defamation – veers into The Simpson’s Bart Visits Australia, before finding redemption.

English

Wavering between plummy and cockney, Farrow’s English accent wanders from upstairs to downstairs and never finds a place to sit. It’s the indecision that kills it, enabled by a quote so long it gives him the time to lose belief.

Eastern European

By far the worst. Truly terrible. Not only is the voice a complete caricature, but it really springs into your ears with urgency. You need a line break and a long intro for something like this.

New Zealand

Within this accent, Farrow actually finds the elements of a good Australian, English and, if he ever needs one South African.

The A’s are good, and spot-on Kiwi. “All costs” and “in hindsight” could pass for English. And “At the time,” is a brilliant Australian. At other points he seems to just be using his regular voice.

Donald Trump

How can an American do a New York accent this poorly? This sounds like me trying to say “Hey I’m walking here”.

Unclear female European

Having chanced his arm at race and age, why add gender into the mix? Nobody would have blinked if he simply hired a female voice actor. Instead we get an awkward trifecta.

Italian

The thing is, a lot of real audio of Italian model Ambra Gutierrez, who helped expose Weinstein’s sexual abuse, exists. Listen to that instead, rather than this voice that sounds like Luigi, the restaurant owner from the Simpsons.