Going to the Wars

'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, author of An Officer and a Spy 'Gripping and compulsively readable' - Saul David, Sunday Telegraph Max Hastings grew up with romantic dreams of a life amongst warriors. But after a painful false start with the Parachute Regiment, he became a journalist instead. Going to the Wars is his vivid, insightful account of his years as a foreign correspondent. His first taste of danger came at the start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, followed by the Biafra and Vietnam Wars. He left Saigon by helicopter from the American Embassy as the city fell to the Khmer Rouge, masqueraded as a game hunter to seek out the secrets of the Rhodesian civil war and was almost shot by marauding Turkish soldiers during the invasion of Cyprus. His greatest moment came at the end of the Falklands War, when he walked alone into Port Stanley, ahead of the British landing force, in determined pursuit of a scoop. 'A first-class piece of reportage. It is filled with tales of derring-do, modestly told' Jon Swain, The Sunday Times 'His memoirs have . . . honesty, pace and readability' - Jeremy Paxman

Max Hastings is the author of thirty books, most about conflict, including Bomber Command, Armageddon, Das Reich, The Korean War, The Battle for the Falklands, Vietnam, Operation Pedestal and Abyss, and editor of two anthologies. He worked as a reporter for BBC television and British newspapers, covering eleven wars, including Vietnam, the 1973 Yom Kippur war and the Falklands war. Between 1986 and 2002 he served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, then editor of the Evening Standard. He has won many prizes for both journalism and his books. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of King's College, London, and was knighted in 2002. He has two grown-up children, Charlotte and Harry, and lives with his wife Penny in West Berkshire, where they garden enthusiastically.

Acknowledgements - i: Permissions Acknowledgements Section - ii: List of Maps and Illustrations Section - iii: Foreward Chapter - 1: Tarnished Wings Chapter - 2: Street Apprentice Chapter - 3: A Taxi to Biafra Chapter - 4: Shooting Vietnam Chapter - 5: Ticket to Firebase Six Chapter - 6: Yom Kippur Chapter - 7: Israel's Victory Chapter - 8: Bush War Chapter - 9: Goodbye to Da Nang Chapter - 10: The Fall of Saigon Chapter - 11: Savimbi's Angola Chapter - 12: Yoni Chapter - 13: Voyage to the South Atlantic Chapter - 14: On the Shore Chapter - 15: Mount Kent Chapter - 16: Walking to Stanley Section - iv: Postscript Index - v: Index