War Stories by Jeremy Bowen - Hardback

 Jeremy Bowen's War Stories
'This is the story of a love affair that went wrong. It isn't over. It still has its moments and it might go on for many more years. But it will never be what it was when it started.'

Jeremy Bowen is not talking about a woman. He was in love with a job: addicted to reporting wars. 'It sounds a little sad, and in a way it was, though it was also compelling and passionate and fun and it never felt like work. I have written this book because many people have asked me why journalists risk their lives to go to war. The answer is complicated, and different people have their own reasons. But these were mine.' 

From joining the BBC as a trainee in 1984, Bowen quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the Corporation's most recognisable faces, a mainstay of news bulletins as he reported from the front lines of various hot-spots around the world. From his first war in El Salvador in 1989, he has covered wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Rwanda, among other places, and worked extensively in the Balkans and the Middle East throughout the 1990s, including reporting the First Gulf War from Baghdad. 

In 2000, however, everything changed. The violent death of a close colleague and the birth of his first child made Jeremy re-assess his hazardous occupation, and ultimately decide that he owed it to his growing family to do something less dangerous. But the fascination remained, and in this riveting memoir he attempts to come to terms with his own infatuation as well as exploring the uncomfortable truth of the job - that as a war correspondent, for you to have a good day, someone else has to have their worst day. 

Candid and compelling, War Stories charts the progress of a young novice whose first reaction to the sound of gunfire was to run towards it to the more circumspect veteran he is today. It is also an extraordinarily gripping account of some of the late twentieth century's most divisive conflicts, and a thought-provoking insight into how technology has changed our attitude to breaking news.