- Published: 1 July 2010
- ISBN: 9780099520986
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 288
- RRP: $26.99
The Secret Life of War
Journeys Through Modern Conflict
- Published: 1 July 2010
- ISBN: 9780099520986
- Imprint: Vintage
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 288
- RRP: $26.99
Beaumont's book is on a different plane to the others and will outlast many of them
Sunday Times
An intelligent, deeply perceptive work drawn from nearly two decades of experience reporting conflict
The Times
Beaumont writes beautifully and calmly, even when describing the fiercest and most emotive moments of war
Janine di Giovanni, Observer
Modern war is all about complexity and uncertainty, and in his accounts of his journeys through conflict, Beaumont certainly evokes this... Beaumont is evidently a brave and determined reporter
Literary Review
Beaumont's account of war reporting in the Middle East is astonishing, not least for its careful detail and his self-searching honesty. A superb piece of work
Esquire
The Secret Life of War is an awesome read, the best enquiry into killing and suffering I've encountered. A plea for resolution, a document of brutal honesty, the bare truth: in it beats the pulse of being there in the throes of modern conflict
Tim Page
A superb writer
New York Review of Books
The Secret Life of War is readable and insightful on the often horrendous things Beaumont has seen... He gets us to the core of conflict with ruthless single-mindedness... He conveys the bloody chaos of the war zone in its stark and grim reality... Above all, Beaumont is refreshingly self-deprecating about his role as a reporter, both honest and realistic
James Blitz, Financial Times
Beaumont reaches beyond his peers to a wider readership' and uses 'his calmness, frankness, self-depreciation and sense of wonder in examining the raw emotions which fuel conflicts
Kim Sengupta, The Independent
The author succeeds magnificently - to such an extent that this book should be required reading for every student of international affairs, every enthusiastic armchair strategist and every aspiring entrant to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst
Hugh O'Shaugnessy, Tribune
Beaumont is fluid and elegant in his description of war and its symptoms
Sam Kiley, Evening Standard
Beaumont is a compassionate companion in this grim world of inverted values, who is prepared to reveal his own psychological damage as he sets about dismantling the myths of war and violence and laying out their formidable human cost
Siobhan Murphy, Metro
Magnificent - this book should be required reading
Tribune
With honesty and humility he diagnoses his own need to return to war the way a junkie feeds on heroin...It is a book from the heart, not a military analysis...one realises the book was a catharsis, a way for him to write his way out of the blackness. You close it and wish him peace
Janine de Giovanni, Observer