Book description
Jon Steele is a war junkie. Soon after starting work as an ITN
cameraman, he began to feel strangely at home in the kind of places
ordinary people get evacuated from. Before long, he was living for the
rush which comes as bullets fly past your head and bombs explode at
your feet. Normal life just couldn't compete...
In Georgia, Jon filmed on the last flight out of the besieged
airport at Sokhumi, as the plane took off in the dead of night, all
lights extinguished, going the wrong way down the runway, directly
towards the nearby steep and virtually invisible mountain range while
Abkhazian soldiers fired off random anti-aircraft shells in their
general direction.
In Moscow, he filmed in the midst of chaos as armed rebels and
Militia fought bloodthirsty, hand-to-hand battles on the streets
around him.
In Rwanda, he filmed the horrific aftermath to the most brutal
massacre of modern times - and his own neck got far too close to the
edge of a machete for comfort.
In Zaire, he filmed endless fields full of young children deranged
by hunger and ravaged by cholera.
In Bosnia, Jon realised that he had, in fact, seen and filmed more
than he could cope with, and finally spiralled out of control, deep
into emotional meltdown.
But somehow War Junkie is also an incredibly funny and
exhilarating book. The humour is dark but sharp as broken glass. The
action comes so thick and fast you can forget to breathe.
War Junkie is shocking, hilarious, deeply moving and,
ultimately, it packs a powerful psychological punch. It will challenge
everything you thought you knew about modern warfare as it shines an
unforgiving spotlight into some of the darkest recesses of recent history.
Jon Steele was born in the American Northwest and raised in Great
Falls, Montana. He left home at the age of sixteen and worked in an
assortment of legal and illegal jobs before joining Independent
Television News of London in 1982. He established a reputation as one of
the world's top cameramen in dangerous environments. He currently lives
in Arab East Jerusalem where he continues to cover the Middle East for
ITN. He lives with a stray cat named Killer.
