The Face of War

Often cited as the best war reporter of the twentieth century, Martha Gellhorn began her career during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 and was still reporting well into her 80s. This collection, selected by the author, plunges us back to Madrid in 1937, China in 1941, Europe during the Second World War, Vietnam and the United States’ dirty little wars in Central America. Immediate and surprising, it’s a seat-of-your-pants experience just to read them, and brilliantly shows the real cost of war wherever it occurs. ‘Memory and imagination, not nuclear weapons, are the first deterrent,’ she writes. The Face of War gives us the chance to remember and imagine and to share her firsthand experience of the folly of mankind at war.