anthony loyd
Anthony Loyd
Memoir | Reportage
Anthony Loyd, author of My War Gone By, I Miss It So, is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has reported from numerous conflict zones including the Balkans, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Iraq and Chechnya. A former infantry officer, he left the British army after the first Gulf War and went to live in Bosnia, where he started reporting for The Times. My War Gone By, I Miss It So is his memoir of that conflict. Most recently, he was kidnapped, shot and then escaped while reporting in Syria.
‘My War Gone By is a brutal yet sensitive story which addresses both the nature of addiction and the experience of war. I was struck by Anthony’s work and words, experiences, and for me his is an important voice and an important book.’
Tom Hardy
‘An extraordinary memoir of the Bosnian War … savage and mercilessly readable … deserves a place alongside George Orwell, James Cameron and Nicholas Tomalin. It is as good as war reporting gets. I have nowhere read a more vivid account of frontline fear and survival. Forget the strategic overview. All war is local. It is about the ditch in which the soldier crouches and the ground on which he fights and maybe dies. The same applies to the war reporter. Anthony Loyd has been there and knows it.’
Martin Bell
‘A truly exceptional book, one of those rare moments in journalistic writing when you can sit back and realise that you are in the presence of somebody willing to take the supreme risk for a writer, of extending their inner self. I finished reading Anthony Loyd’s account of his time in the Balkans and Chechnya only a few days ago and am still feeling the after-effects … I read his story of war and addiction (to conflict and heroin) with a sense of gratitude for the honesty and courage on every page.’
