War Junkie

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.