Another Bloody Love Letter - Hardcover

Loyd, Anthony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0755314794 ISBN 13: 9780755314799

Publisher: Headline Review, 2007

Synopsis

Critically acclaimed writer and award-winning foreign correspondent, Anthony Loyd is also an ex-heroin addict. Another Bloody Love Letter exposes the thrilling and brutal reality of life as a war journalist - from the climax of war in Kosovo and the reignited battles between Ethiopia and Eritrea, to tracking ambush commanders in Sierra Leone, confronting the danger and confusion of northern Afghanistan at the start of the 'war on terror', and the harsh realities of life in Iraq during the Second Gulf War. But it is also the very human story of a man fighting to beat a heroin addiction and coming to terms with the death of a father-figure, friend and colleague murdered by the RUF in Sierra Leone, and the death of his mother from a terminal illness at home.

Another Bloody Love Letter takes the reader into the mind of a man who has chased war and death for more than half his life, and shows the price he has paid for it. It is a moving and powerful memoir of love and friendship, betrayal and loss, war and faith.

About this title

Review:

'Devastating honesty... Loyd's frankness shows a different kind of courage from that he demonstrates on the battlefield, but it's courage none the less... Loyd shows himself to be the best guide through today's wars working in the English language. He can also be very moving. This is a book about love as much as war.' (The Daily Telegraph)

'Two things set Anthony Loyd apart from your average, war-weary combat-zone junkie: a luminous prose style that sometimes borders on the visionary, and a fiercely principled integrity.' (Daily Mail)

'Anthony Loyd's style is low-key - philosophical, reflective, melancholic, stoical and beset by internal demons (heroin addiction, the loss of a beloved mentor, the terminal illness of his mother) that gives a still, sad edge to his observation of the tragedies and inanities of conflict. He writes from grit and grief.' (The Times)

'This memoir is a great big bloody bong of horror, chaos, gallows humour, loss, boredom and self-loathing, followed by slack-jawed self-medication... All the horror and madness and desperate, thoughtless, random injustice and, even worse, random justice, of war is present and incorrect... For once, the promise of the publisher's blurb - 'Anthony Loyd spares us nothing in this moving and painfully honest memoir' - is more than fulfilled... It isn't perfect. Sometimes, like war, it's messy. But it is moving. And if this is just another vicarious hit of a war correspondent's memories, well, it's seriously good shit, man.' (Independent on Sunday)

'Britain's boldest, louchest, war reporter... [A] vivid, hugely compelling memoir... Loyd writes glorious, evocative, laceratingly honest prose rich in gory detail and telling metaphor.' (The Mail on Sunday)

'Superb memoir... Scouring honesty... Loyd's own painful honesty... makes this memoir all the more compelling.' (Evening Standard)

'Loyd has little time for those without guts... Pitiless on conflict itself - what drives men to it, and the seemingly infinite degree of savagery of which man is capable.' (Metro)

'Not content with getting shot at in the world's trouble spots, reporter Anthony Loyd was either using heroin or trying to get off it. His second volume of memoirs isn't as sharp as the first, but it will still have you hooked' (Night & Day)

'The most exciting book I have read this year.' (Sunday Herald)

'Loyd can... write exceptionally well at times, and with lacerating honesty... There's real substance here, too, and a candour that is shockingly memorable.' (Sunday Times)

Book Description:

A raw and unforgiving account of the brutal realities of life as a war reporter

About this edition

• Publisher: Headline Review
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0755314794
• ISBN 13: 9780755314799
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 303