War words
Let it out
CBS News foreign correspondent Kimberley Dozier, who recently participated in the Frontline Club event in New York, talks about how writing and discussing the more horrific experiences she has encountered as a war reporter has helped her cope, “If you don’t talk to a therapist, talk to you wife, your buddy, write about it. Just […]
Bush’s War
The PBS Frontline TV show puts online the two part documentary called Bush’s War. The vast multimedia report includes over 400 interviews and 175 video clips. The Producer Michael Kirk answered questions online at the Washington Post, Our focus was the war about the war. We focused on the battleground between the forces that wanted […]
Talking with the Taliban
The Globe & Mail’s Graeme Smith puts together an in depth multimedia production called Talking with the Taliban for Canada’s biggest newspaper. The piece includes 42 unedited interviews with Taliban fighters all of whom were asked the same set of questions by a researcher the newspaper sent to talk with the Taliban. Here are the […]
Bearing Witness
Reuters and MediaStorm have partnered to produce a stunning multimedia production to mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq. It’s quite the mammoth undertaking with five chapters profiling three journalists with video, photography and snazzy graphics, The site features profiles of three Reuter’s journalists who have more than 23 years combined experience reporting […]
Three great reasons to…
… listen to this week’s NPR On the Media podcast. First up, Pulitzer prizer winner Seymour Hersh reveals how he broke the My Lai massacre story during the Vietnam war and how he scooped the Abu Grahib story. Second up, a discussion about the life and importance of Robert Capa famed for his Spanish Civil […]
The Angel of Grozny
Simon Mayo at BBC Radio 5 Live talks to war correspondent Asne Sierstad about her work in Chechnya over the past decade and her new book The Angel of Grozny. You can listen to the interview direct here or subscribe to the Daily Mayo podcast, Norwegian journalist Asne Sierstad has covered conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan […]
A life up front
Writing in the LA Times Clancy Sigal reviews a new book of Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front by Todd DePastino about the renowned war cartoonist Bill Maudlin. Maudlin, who died in 2003, is most remembered for his World War II cartoons although he later worked in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War. If he […]
The folly of attacking Iran
Stephen Kinzer, former New York Times foreign correspondent, is in Philadeplhia on a tour to promote his book “The Folly of Attacking Iranâ€. Philly Mag interviews Kinzer ahead of his talk, As a staff reporter, I was not able to beat my spoon on the highchair. That’s one of the reasons I left the New […]
The run up to Iraq
In this week’s Editor & Publisher podcast there is an interview with E&P Editor Greg Mitchell who recently published a book about the run up to war in Iraq and the role of the media – “So Wrong for So Long: How the The Press, the Pundits — and the President — Failed on Iraq”. […]
Photographer Preston-Smith on Iraq
Writer and photographer Joel Preston-Smith spent four months in Iraq in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He talks about his most recent book “Night of a Thousand Stars and Other Portraits of Iraq” with The Oregonian, How do you feel about these people treating you so gently when your country […]
One soldier’s war
The Boston Globe runs a Q&A with soldier-turned-author Arkady Babchenko. As an 18 year draftee he fought with the Russian Army in 1995 in the First Chechen War. In 1999, he volunteered to fight in the Second Chechen War. “One Soldier’s War” is his account of his experiences. Babchenko lives in Moscow and now works […]
Andy McNab on Kabul hotels
[video:youtube:2iltEbDjM_M] Dominic Medley, a frequent visitor to Gandamack Lodge in Kabul and a founding member of the Frontline club, emails to tell me popular war novelist and ex-SAS man Andy McNab writes about the hotel scene in Kabul in his latest book, Crossfire. The author looks favorably upon the Gandamack lodge. Here are Dominic’s snippets […]
A night on the road
The truck’s ‘extrication kit’ included shovels and a jack to deal with the mud; tools and spares for the Japanese diesel engine; and documents, cigarettes and whisky to ease our way through military checkpoints. We flew an identifying flag and had called the relevant field commanders before leaving. We were carrying supplies for a hospital […]
Close up of a peace agreement
Choice observations upon examination of the recent peace agreement in eastern Congo: Percentage of signatories using green pens: 0.05 Missing from the multimedia archives: audio file of the collective sigh of relief by 1,200 delegates when they heard, after several hours of speculation-filled delay, that the document had been signed. Number of days from signature […]
Joe Sacco podcast
Like a cross between cartoonist R. Crumb and international correspondents such as CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Sacco’s comics are a personal narrative that feels inseparable from the dangerous places he visits. link That’s how Brian Libby describes war cartoonist Joe Sacco on Oregon Live. Sacco has an exhibition running at Pacific Northwest College of Art until […]
Partytime in Ramadi
Peter Carlson scans through the magazines for the Washington Post and finds an article in the Virginia Quarterly Review by David J. Morris, a marine veteran turned journalist/college teacher. Morris returned to Ramadi in October. The reception he got this time around was quite different from the first time he arrived in the summer of […]
Can compromises bring peace at last?
Did you know that eastern Congo gets struck by lightning more often than anywhere else in the world? It’s usually preferable to agree some sort of ceasefire before holding formal talks. Suspending hostilities – however temporarily – is the polite thing to do. It builds confidence, sets the tone, and helps the concentration. But no […]
Knowing it
The Times reviews club member Christina Lamb’s new book Small Wars Permitting today. Quentin Peel, the FT’s international affairs editor and reviewer of the book, makes some pretty spot on observations about journalists, It is not just a question of being in the right place at the right time, as [Christina] says herself, but of […]
People of the book
Former Wall Street Journal war correspondent Geraldine Brooks is busy promoting her new novel called ‘People of the Book’ The author drew on her experience in Bosnia for the story which is set in Sarajevo. Kirsten Tagami interviews Geraldine for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, I was in Bosnia during the siege of Sarajevo and I […]
Elephant’s graveyard
Words of woe for club members John Simpson and George Alagiah seeping from the pen of Daily Mail columnist Richard Kay today, Perhaps globetrotting John Simpson should avoid the Pan Bookshop on the Fulham Road when next in London. His book News From No Man’s Land is at half price in the shop’s closing down […]
A Painter of Battles
Novelist Arturo Pérez-Reverte draws on his experience as a war reporter in Lebanon, Bosnia, Libya and elsewhere for his latest book, A Painter of Battles. Lorraine Adams reviews it for the New York Times, The hero of “The Painter of Battles,†Andrés Faulques, lives in a 300-year-old tower on the Spanish coast. A war photographer […]
The Geography of Bliss
The New York Times prints the first chapter of Eric Weiner’s new book, The Geography Of Bliss: Why Is That Land Smiling? In it he explores ten of the most, and least, contented countries of the world. As foreign correspondent for NPR, he’s seen his fair share of both, As a foreign correspondent for National […]
Foreign correspondent or spy?
It’s a bit of a cliché, but if a new book, Berlin and Beyond, is to be believed some foreign correspondents do indeed make great spies. Well, at least one of them did. Soon after Anthony Terry died in 1992, stepdaughter Judith Lenart was clearing out his desk when she discovered a bundle of letters […]
Reporting Iraq
Vivienne Walt, Judith Matloff and Christopher Allbritton interview some 50 journalists who have worked extensively in Iraq for the book called Reporting Iraq. The Statesman reviews the book, The psychological toll of war reporting is often forgotten or denied, even by journalists themselves. In “Reporting Iraq,” Anne Garrels of NPR confesses, “I still have nightmares, […]
A disappearing way of life
[video:youtube:hIxCbMcHAQQ] “This is a disppaearing way of life,” says former Times editor Martin Fletcher as he promotes his forthcoming book, “Breaking News: A Stunning and Memorable Account of Reporting from Some of the Most Dangerous Places in the World”, via YouTube. The book documents 35 years on a journey “from clueless young adventurer… to grizzled […]
Beyond the Green Zone
Former Alaska mountain guide Dahr Jamail had no formal journalism training or experience when he picked up a laptop and digital camera and headed to Iraq initially emailing stories back to a small group of friends. He soon got picked up by independent news services. Beyond the Green Zone is a compilation of Jamail’s reports, […]
Reportage Press doubles output
Reportage Press is run by Frontline Club founder member Charlotte Eagar. It has published four books since May and plans to double output into 2008. Eagar’s own debut novel – The Girl in the Film – set during the seige of Sarajevo is due out in March. Also due out on Reportage is Daily Telegraph […]
Working in the Korengal valley
In the latest edition of Vanity Fair, Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington talk about working on a story from the Korengal Valley frontline in Afghanistan. The duo were embedded with Second Platoon for ABC News.
War News Radio
All the wars, all of the time. Well OK, some of the wars, some of the time. War News Radio reports on and from Afghanistan and Iraq and is cobbled together by students at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. The weekly 29-minute programme is free to listen to. The station aims to shed light on, [the] […]
War weary
Jane Hansen, former TV journalist, foreign correspondent and war reporter, talks about her new book Three Seasons and how it’s not the excitement of “the job” that has made her “war weary” these past few years, Jane talks about her decision to delay starting a family with Andrew because the excitement of a career she […]