Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands
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Review
Praise for 'Small Wars Permitting': 'Succeeds because it is so lively.' Sunday Times 'Very readable and gives a good idea of what it is like!to be a front--line correspondent.' Financial Times 'A potent mix of her best articles, memories and some of the impressions she jotted in notebooks and diaries along the way.' Guardian. 'A wonderful retrospective of her dispatches, punctuated with memories of her tenure as a professional stranger in Karachi, Baghdad, Kabul and other danger zones.' Observer 'Hers is the humane face of her hard profession: candid, modest and brave. She is clear-sighted without cynicism, and amazingly unscarred by all she has experienced. This book is a fine testament to her courage and compassion.' Colin Thubron 'Lively ! revealing ! Anyone who doubts the value of professional foreign correspondents should read "Small Wars Permitting".' Patrick French, Sunday Times 'When Christina Lamb set off to be a foreign correspondent ! she had a hopelessly romantic idea of what might be involved.! I suspect she is still an incurable romantic. That is one good reason she has survived -- and flourished -- as a foreign correspondent for 20 years, covering three continents and innumerable crises, at a time when the profession is sadly in decline.' Quentin Peel, Financial Times Praise for 'House of Stone': 'Lamb is a careful observer, and her anguished refrain is the terrible schizophrenia of people who fiercely love their land but do nothing to save it!the strength is in the storytelling!her book deserves to be read.' Daily Telegraph 'A remarkable blend of outrage, compassion and hope, Christina Lamb's book is an alternately horrifying and uplifting insight into the Taliban regime.' Justin Marozzi, Evening Standard
Product Description
An extraordinary collection of reportage that tells the story of some of the most important world events of the past 16 years, from one of the most talented and intrepid female journalists at work today. Since leaving England aged 21 with an invitation to a Karachi wedding and a yearning for adventure, Christina Lamb has spent 20 years living out of suitcases, reporting from around the world and becoming one of Britain's most highly regarded journalists. She has won numerous awards, including being named Foreign Correspondent of the Year a remarkable four times. 'Small Wars Permitting' is a collection of her best reportage, following the principal events of the last two decades everywhere from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. But Lamb's main interest has always been in the untold stories, the people and places others don't visit. Undaunted by danger, disease or despots, she has travelled by canoe through the Amazon rainforest in search of un-contacted Indians, joined a Rio samba school to infiltrate crime rackets behind Carnival and survived a terrifying ambush by Taliban. No less remarkable are the characters that Lamb meets along the way, from Marsh Arabs who covet Play Stations instead of buffaloes to an Armenian compere for performing dolphins with whom she travelled during the war in Iraq. Lamb's writing is passionate, powerful and poetic, transforming reportage into literature. Through the stories she tells -- and her own development from a self-confessed 'war junkie' to a devoted mother -- Lamb attempts to comprehend the human consequences of conflict in the countries she has come to know.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fabulous, inspiring and enlightening,
By Tracy Moss (London UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands (Paperback)
This is a fabulous book by one of those rare journalists who really knows how to spot the penetrating detail and goes the extra mile to get behind the story. It is full of insights into everything from how the Taliban came about to what went wrong in Iraq, with a bit of Rio carnival and fattening farms in Nigeria thrown in for light relief. I started it in the bath and sat there for three hours till my skin had gone wrinkly!
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Insight into corners of the world otherwise missed,
By Joiner (Shropshire, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands (Paperback)
Having started on the Lamb trail as an indifferent bystander I am now a full-blown fan of this sweet-faced reporter whose beaming, innocent smile fronts a piercing mind and an all-seeing eye. I can see how it's possible to miss the 'personal opinion' if that's what you want, but she sees it as it is and you see it through her eyes. That's the strength of her writing. That is her personal strength, from which comes the courage to sit and talk with some macho drug- or war-lord who thinks that a mere woman, especially one as diminutive as this, couldn't possibly see through his posturing. She doesn't need to 'comment'. The head of the Pakistani SIS is an evil piece of work because he is, you don't relate to him, yet the ex-Taliban torturer (see 'The Sewing Circles of Herat') has something about him to be pitied, what he DID was evil. Christina Lamb addresses your intelligence, it's up to you what you do with it.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Too much reportage, not enough insight...,
By bloodsimple (nottingham, uk) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands (Paperback)
Christina Lamb is a long-time foreign correspondent, latterly of the BBC, but previously for national newspapers. She has a special interest in, and knowledge of, the Middle East.
Overall, this is a slightly disappointing book, if only because Ms Lamb is clearly an intelligent, empathic individual who has met some fascinating people, and lived through important periods of history. Allied to her journalistic expertise, you would expect the colour and flavour of events to leap out of the page. Unfortunately, the narrative spins around the globe without any clear logic, and minor nuggets get lost in a lot of wider general reportage, as opposed to insight. There is not enough of Ms Lamb's personal views, reflections and understanding, and rather too much of a statement of events. Compared to, for example, Fergal Keane, the style is too detached. I want to know what the author's views are; how she sees the world going; how she reconciles her roles as observer and unwilling participant; and why she thinks people do the things they do. For me, much of this was lacking.
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