“An excellent read.”
“The sections on 9/11 are among the book’s best. Even if every other writer had kept a level head, Ayres’s crisp sentences would have been in a class of their own. Fortunately Ayres also has laughter in his belly. Ayres would never have cut it in the military, but he need not think meanly of himself. Going to war may or may not have made a man of him, but it certainly made a reporter of him.”
“Ayres’s rookie fear and unique observations make a memorable new voice.”
“It’s an unlikely, even incredible story, how the Hollywood correspondent of The Times came to be embedded with the Marine Corps, the roughest and toughest of the American military. It tells the truth about war in a way that most memoirs don’t. Chris Ayres is actually a very good war reporter. He’s brilliant.”
“Ayres is a much better journalist than he gives himself credit for in War Reporting for Cowards, his engaging account of his crazier-than-fiction antics. He knows full well that, with a well-turned phrase, he can extract the most humour from his anecdotes by not letting up on himself for a minute. The result is at once hugely entertaining and, suprisingly, a better insight into the sheer awfulness of war than any gung ho adrenaline junkie could ever achieve.”
“Brilliant. 5/5.”
“Chris Ayres has invented a new genre: a rip-roaring tale of adventure and derring-don’t.”
“Hilarious… Ayres’s heightened sense of self-preservation and aversion to discomfort combined to ensure I will never think of war reporting the same way again.”
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 by Chris Ayres
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.
“Borderline,” composed by Reginald Lucas. Published by Careers BMG Music Publishing Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. “The Penis Song,” words and music by Eric Idle © 1983. Reproduced by permission of Kay-Gee-Bee Music Ltd/EMI Virgin Music Ltd, London WC2H 0QY.
Printed in the United States of America
FIRST GROVE PRESS EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ayres, Chris, 1975–
War reporting for cowards/Chris Ayres.
p. cm.
eBook ISBN-13: 978-1-5558-4594-0
1. Iraq War, 2003. 2. Ayres, Chris, 1975– 3. Journalists—United
States—Biography. I. Title.
DS79.76. A97 2005
070.4′4995670443—dc22 2005040998
Grove Press
an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
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New York, NY 10003
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