The Secret Life of War
Journeys Through Modern Conflict
A provocative story of war that offers rare insight into the real effects of conflict on civilians, reporters, and societies themselves.
Once it was simple to write about war. States or ideologies clashed; battles were fought between national armies or movements. But war has changed.
War has become “privatized” by small armed groups, states have fragmented and the conventional arms of the West are found wanting against warlordism. Drawing on the author’s experiences as a foreign correspondent in the world’s most dangerous places, The Secret Life of War focuses on the human cost of war: to the combatants, to civilians and to the author, as one who bears witness.
Every encounter is arresting: a visit to the bombed and abandoned home of…
Peter Beaumont is the Foreign Affairs Editor of The Observer. He joined the paper in 1989 and has covered numerous conflicts and crises. Beaumont is the recipient of various awards, including the One World Media Award, the Amnesty International Media Award, and the George Orwell Prize for Journalism. He was educated at Hampton Grammar School and Keble College, Oxford. Beaumont lives in London.
