In Harm's Way: Bosnia: A War Reporter's Story (PAPERBACK)
UK £9.99,
UK Publication April 2012
ISBN 9781848313880
Paperback
Page Extent 336
Buy: | Amazon UK
First published in September 1995, In Harm’s Way established itself rapidly as a classic of war reporting.
Martin Bell’s was BBC TV’s principal correspondent during the war in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995. The original version of this passionate and personal account of the conflict was written while the war was still going on, some of it late at night in the Holiday Inn in Sarajevo.
In Harm’s Way is not only about the progress of the war; it is about its origins, how it began and how it could have been avoided; it is about the human costs of war in which all the peoples of Bosnia became the victims; it is about a massive failure by the United Nations, beginning with an inadequate peace-keeping mandate and ending with the Srebrenica massacre; and it is about the practices of war reporting itself.
And it is about the journalists in the thick of it, the oddballs and the idealists, the wild adventurers and hardened professionals who were caught up in this war and tried to make some sense of it.
In the introduction to this new edition, marking the twentieth anniversary of the outbreak of hostilities, Martin Bell reflects on the impact of what he calls the most consequential war of our time.
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‘Martin Bell’s book is likeable and full of insights. It captures an important aspect of the Bosnian war, namely the role of international journalists. With its self-deprecating jokes and “English” decency, it earns a place near the best Anglophone journalism in the Balkans’ Mark Thompson, New Statesman
‘An exceptionally thoughtful book about reporting … His eyewitness accounts have a particular value, especially since he has seen so many other conflicts’ John Simpson, Spectator
‘Written with clarity and often understated anger, this is more than a book on the strictures of television in conflict. This is a prophetic warning from the brutal European battlefield: ignore it at your children’s peril’ Anthony Lloyd, Times
‘By turns funny, personal, delightfully bitchy about media egos, and quietly moving’ John Sweeney, Observer
‘A coruscating account of the dangerous work of a war correspondent, replete with tales of Bell dodging, and in one case not dodging, bullets across the globe in order to bring us our nightly news’ Jim White, Independent
‘Compelling … This acid, self-effacing and tautly written book is a journalistic jewel. The notes I made as I read it confirm gems of either description or analysis on almost every page … His caustic appraisal of the medium’s limitations must be read by all in our business … accurate, balanced and self-critical … It has humbled us all in the news business. I consider Martin Bell one of the greats’ Nik Gowing, British Journalism Review
‘In its portrayal of the ordeal of Bosnia, and especially Sarajevo, this is a powerful book. It is also one which has much to say about the process of television news-gathering’ Richard Crampton, Times Literary Supplement
‘[Bell’s] story is that of a civilized and passionate man cast into situations fraught with danger and livid with mankind’s bestialities … His sanity, clarity of vision and humanity are rare, especially coming from the savage world he inhabits and records for others’ Martin Booth, Independent
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Martin Bell OBE is one of the best-known and most highly regarded names in British television journalism. As a BBC reporter he has covered foreign assignments in more than 80 countries and eleven wars including Vietnam, Nigeria, Angola, Nicaragua, The Gulf and Bosnia, where millions watched as he was nearly killed by shrapnel. In 1997 Martin became the first Independent MP to be elected to Parliament since 1950. His previous books are In Harm's Way (Penguin, 1995), An Accidental MP (Viking, 2000) and Through Gates of Fire (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003).See more books by: Martin Bell
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Other editions / related titles:
For Whom The Bell Tolls (HARDBACK)
A Very British Revolution: The Expenses Scandal and How to Save Our Democracy
The Truth that Sticks: New Labour's Breach of Trust
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Media:
One of Martin's many reports from the frontline of the Bosnian war in January 1994:
