- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Headline Review; First Edition / First Impression edition (8 Mar 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0755314794
- ISBN-13: 978-0755314799
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.4 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 295,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"'An extraordinary memoir... savage and mercilessly revealing... 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' Martin Bell, The Times; 'Not since Michael Herr wrote Despatches has any journalist written so persuasively about violence and its seductions in all of war's minutiae of awful detail' Peter Beaumont, Observer, 'An astonishing book... a raw, vivid and brutally honest account of his transition from thrill-seeker to concerned and compassionate reporter' Philip Jacobson, Daily Mail; 'A truly exceptional book' Fergal Keane, Independent"
The Independent on Sunday, March 11, 2007
'it's seriously good shit, man'
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Powerful and harrowing on one hand , a moving tribute to a fallen colleague on the other.
20 Mar 2007
Format:Hardcover
Anthony Loyd has previously written one of the great modern books on war and conflict with "My War Gone By , I Miss It So". A paean to journalists who cover war and their single minded passion to report on conflict and the extraordinary bravery required to do the job that book centered on the Balkan war in Bosnia and the armed struggle in Chechnya. This follow up is set in Kosovo 13 years later and covers the vicious fighting between the Albanian Muslims and the Serbs though it also takes in incidents around the globe , some of which are so appallingly gruesome and sadistic that they leave you agog with horror.
This is so much more than a simple recounting of what happened in that conflict and Loyd,s eyewitness accounts . There are some incredibly poignant passages about Loyd,s mentor Kurt -a co-reporter in Kosovo but who is eventually killed in an ambush in Sierra Leone and in one sense this book is a goodbye to him. Loyd is also brutally honest about his own warped appetites - his constant thirst for war reportage and the more worrying one for crack and heroin , which is maybe a direct consequence of his chosen profession. Like war itself the book is a bit of a bloody mess . Loyds prose is sometime so purple and vivid it leaves the reader as dazed as a rifle butt to the head . And he doesn't seem able to make his mind where he stands on the Serbs .He slates them as amoral bloodthirsty racist murderers and advocates NATO bombing of them and putting ground troops into Kosovo yet when this is done he slates them for failing to prevent Muslims taking their revenge on their Serb oppressors. Unbelievably he was also a supporter of the invasion of Iraq, though he is candid enough to admit his error on that score.
While leaving me gob smacked at his bravery and a little perplexed at why anyone would want to do the job he does( though thank the lord someone does) Loyd doesn't shy from peeling back the layers on his complex personality .Plagued by self loathing and mawkish navel gazing he spares the reader nothing of himself and of what he witnesses, and it makes for an unusually powerful read and one that is not easily forgotten .
This is so much more than a simple recounting of what happened in that conflict and Loyd,s eyewitness accounts . There are some incredibly poignant passages about Loyd,s mentor Kurt -a co-reporter in Kosovo but who is eventually killed in an ambush in Sierra Leone and in one sense this book is a goodbye to him. Loyd is also brutally honest about his own warped appetites - his constant thirst for war reportage and the more worrying one for crack and heroin , which is maybe a direct consequence of his chosen profession. Like war itself the book is a bit of a bloody mess . Loyds prose is sometime so purple and vivid it leaves the reader as dazed as a rifle butt to the head . And he doesn't seem able to make his mind where he stands on the Serbs .He slates them as amoral bloodthirsty racist murderers and advocates NATO bombing of them and putting ground troops into Kosovo yet when this is done he slates them for failing to prevent Muslims taking their revenge on their Serb oppressors. Unbelievably he was also a supporter of the invasion of Iraq, though he is candid enough to admit his error on that score.
While leaving me gob smacked at his bravery and a little perplexed at why anyone would want to do the job he does( though thank the lord someone does) Loyd doesn't shy from peeling back the layers on his complex personality .Plagued by self loathing and mawkish navel gazing he spares the reader nothing of himself and of what he witnesses, and it makes for an unusually powerful read and one that is not easily forgotten .
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
What separates 'Another Bloody Love Letter' from almost any other war memoir I have read, is that it perfectly captures the impossibility of answering the question 'did you get what you are looking for?' when it is asked of a reporter who's very vocation involves the pursuit of frequently unfathomable human behaviour. Like the photojournalist Don McCullin's autobiography 'Unreasonable Behaviour', Anthony Loyd's book also brilliantly reveals that the more brutal and extreme the acts experienced, the more unbearable life away from the combat zones becomes. His heroin addiction you judge not as a consequence of weakness but as an inevitable form of escape.
Loyd pulls us in to a series of messy, modern conflicts without winners and losers, where the shattering effect of war breaks minds as readily as bodies, the audience as easily as the cast. It is interesting that the richest language is reserved to portray the natural beauty of the varying terrains surrounding the sites where sickeningly ugly acts are taking place. As shooting after massacre after atrocity is laid bare before you in a dizzying barrage of prose, you come to yearn for these Attenborough-esque portraits of the globe so that you can share in the same release that they must have provided at the time for the writer.
By far the strongest thread that pulls you through the book is Loyd's relationship with his fellow war reporter and mentor Kurt Schork. You feel the energy and vitality of a maverick odd couple who are ripped straight out of a buddy movie, cracking jokes and saving each other's skins as they cross ever more dangerous lines. The senseless nature of Kurt's death in Sierra Leone leaves you totally absorbed in Anthony's quest to track down the killers, to look into their eyes, to find their story, to find an ending. You hope that this can be at least one war story where the frayed ends can be tied together.
You put the book down wishing a lot of things for Anthony Loyd, above all though you wish for him to get what he is looking for.
Loyd pulls us in to a series of messy, modern conflicts without winners and losers, where the shattering effect of war breaks minds as readily as bodies, the audience as easily as the cast. It is interesting that the richest language is reserved to portray the natural beauty of the varying terrains surrounding the sites where sickeningly ugly acts are taking place. As shooting after massacre after atrocity is laid bare before you in a dizzying barrage of prose, you come to yearn for these Attenborough-esque portraits of the globe so that you can share in the same release that they must have provided at the time for the writer.
By far the strongest thread that pulls you through the book is Loyd's relationship with his fellow war reporter and mentor Kurt Schork. You feel the energy and vitality of a maverick odd couple who are ripped straight out of a buddy movie, cracking jokes and saving each other's skins as they cross ever more dangerous lines. The senseless nature of Kurt's death in Sierra Leone leaves you totally absorbed in Anthony's quest to track down the killers, to look into their eyes, to find their story, to find an ending. You hope that this can be at least one war story where the frayed ends can be tied together.
You put the book down wishing a lot of things for Anthony Loyd, above all though you wish for him to get what he is looking for.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
On reading 'My War Gone by, I Miss it so...' I was left with a complete sense of awe. I felt that I had read something completely new that had expanded my worldly view and provoked thoughts and ideas that I had never considered before. It inspired me to go out and read more war correspondence, initially Michael Herr's 'Dispatches', before returning to this, Loyd's second book. Unfortunatly, I came away feeling that I'd been somewhat cheated.
There is no doubt that this book contains interesting accounts of Loyd's journalistic escapades and brushes with death, however the vast majority of the book feels like edited out pieces of his first book. If you were to read both book simultaneously you would struggle to identify from which book which story came because, apart from a few additions, both books recall tales from the same periods, places, personal struggles, family relationships and many other things. The only real addition to 'Another Bloody Love Letter' other than some more up-to-date war correspondence, is a regular recollection of shared events with Loyd's fellow journalist Kurt, to whom this book generally serves a memorial to.
Yet, on saying that the two books are very similarly matched, I do feel that the writing in this book is somewhat more forced. In 'My War gone by...' I genuinely connected with the fear that being on a front line being overrun by an enemy was like, understood Loyd's shock at some of the sights he witnessed. However, in this account, the strongest sentiment that I felt was an undercurrent of angst and despair at losing a friend as opposed to the war correspondence. While I have no intention of detracting from the significance of such a loss, 'Another Bloody Love Letter' is more of a dedication to Kurt using the edited out pieces of 'My War gone by' as a vessel to do so.
While this book is a very good read, for those who have read 'My War Gone by...' first it will seem all too familiar. Perhaps the general perception will be that whichever you have read first will have greatest impact, and for me having read this second it seems that I will fall into the category that places this as the inferior.
There is no doubt that this book contains interesting accounts of Loyd's journalistic escapades and brushes with death, however the vast majority of the book feels like edited out pieces of his first book. If you were to read both book simultaneously you would struggle to identify from which book which story came because, apart from a few additions, both books recall tales from the same periods, places, personal struggles, family relationships and many other things. The only real addition to 'Another Bloody Love Letter' other than some more up-to-date war correspondence, is a regular recollection of shared events with Loyd's fellow journalist Kurt, to whom this book generally serves a memorial to.
Yet, on saying that the two books are very similarly matched, I do feel that the writing in this book is somewhat more forced. In 'My War gone by...' I genuinely connected with the fear that being on a front line being overrun by an enemy was like, understood Loyd's shock at some of the sights he witnessed. However, in this account, the strongest sentiment that I felt was an undercurrent of angst and despair at losing a friend as opposed to the war correspondence. While I have no intention of detracting from the significance of such a loss, 'Another Bloody Love Letter' is more of a dedication to Kurt using the edited out pieces of 'My War gone by' as a vessel to do so.
While this book is a very good read, for those who have read 'My War Gone by...' first it will seem all too familiar. Perhaps the general perception will be that whichever you have read first will have greatest impact, and for me having read this second it seems that I will fall into the category that places this as the inferior.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Incredibly well written memoir
This memoir by former soldier and freelance journalist Anthony Loyd is both exciting and harrowing as he takes us with him on a journey through Kosovo, Sierre Leonne, Afghanistan,... Read more
Published on 22 May 2008 by Paul Holland
A need for conflict
Anthony Loyd is one of Britain's leading war correspondents. He served in the army in the first Gulf War, subsequently dropping out and becoming a freelance war correspondent. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2007 by Allan Gordon
War behind the scenes
What separates 'Another Bloody Love Letter' from almost any other war memoir I have read, is that it perfectly captures the impossibility of answering the question 'did you get... Read more
Published on 12 Nov 2007 by Mark Steel
Brilliant book
One of those books that you just cant put down and when it ends you are sorry to close it.
The writing is amazing. Read more
The writing is amazing. Read more
Published on 31 Mar 2007 by Mrs. P. S. L. Smith
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