Going to the wars - Max Hastings

"A superb account of journalists, soldiers and the experience of modern battle, written by one of the greatest war reporters of our time." Robert Harris

Max Hastings grew up with romantic dreams of a life amongst warriors. But after his failure as a parachute soldier in Cyprus in 1963, he became a journalist, and a war correspondent instead. Before he was 30 he had reported conflicts in Northern Ireland, Biafra, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Middle East, Cyprus, Rhodesia, India and a string of other trouble spots. His final effort was as a war correspondent during the Falklands War.

Going to the Wars is a story of his experiences reporting from these battlefields. It is also the story of a self-confessed coward: a writer with heroic ambitions who found himself recording the doings of heroes when he understood that he did not have what it took to be a hero himself.