Frontline by David Loyn
Monday, 04 Sep 2006 10:33
Frontline describes the exploits of journalists determined to capture the real essence of dangerous wars
Published by Penguin, out now, paperback, 458 pages, £9.99.
In a nutshell…
Shocking. Edgy. Brave. Gripping. Sobering.
What's it all about?
Frontline describes the exploits of a group of photo and film journalists determined to capture the real essence of wars fought all over the world, mostly in some of the most dangerous places in existence. The main men in this book - Rory Peck, Peter Jouvenal, Vaughan Smith and Nicholas Della Casa - repeatedly flirt with danger as they record the true nature of conflicts across the Middle East, Asia and Africa, resulting in some gruesome findings. However, numerous deaths and accounting struggles lead to inevitable troubles for the Frontline agency.
Who's it by?
David Loyn has over 25 years of experience working as a foreign affairs journalist and is currently the BBC's developing world correspondent. Some of his earliest assignments included covering the fall of the Berlin Wall and Poland's first free elections, and more recently uncovered a massacre in Kosovo in 1998. He has won a number of awards for his achievements in television and radio news.
As an example…
"Peter had spent a day filming the effects of targeted high explosive... The men who had been in those convoys had been vaporised in the intense heat of the fires, although here and there something of them remained and the pictures showed congealed masses of melted cartilage shrunk tight onto blackened skeletons."
Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster
It's certainly got the adventure and derring-do suitable for a tense action film and would probably go down well with fans of violent gun battles, but would be unlikely to hit the top of the box office charts - unless some very big names play the main roles.
What the others say
"Gripping story, splashed with devil-may-care colour... The characters tend to be ex-public school and ex-military, with healthy appetites for 'champagne and girlfriends,'" The Guardian.
"Loyn identifies much that is profoundly disturbing about 21st-century journalism: the corporate mantra that 'no story is worth a life' that puts the blame on journalists themselves when they die in the line of duty," Sunday Telegraph.
So is it any good?
Anyone with a healthy interest in journalism or foreign affairs will find this book fascinating. Loyn describes the amazing determination of these men in compelling detail while firing out political and cultural facts left, right and centre. However, for those who want a light read with a happy ending, Frontline is probably not for you.
8/10
Dipika Patel
"The most inspiring book I've ever had the fortune to read. To see it as a 'bang bang' novel is largely missing the point, it is also thought-provoking, especially in terms of the role of the modern media in relation to modern reporting techniques, impartiality, and freedom of speach. Provokes every emotion, makes you question the old nine to five!! Five stars without doubt!!" - Rory Shepherd-Barron