Seema Syeda recalls the journalism of William Beach Thomas – who came to regret peddling WWI ‘fake news’.
War Reporters
War Reporters: Martha Gellhorn
Seema Syeda appreciates the charm and chutzpah of indefatigable war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. Having crossed the Atlantic to cover her first conflict, the Spanish Civil War, Gellhorn found herself in Czechoslovakia, just before the Nazi occupation of the region known to the Germans as the Sudetenland.
War Reporters: Ernie Pyle
Dubbed ‘the Soldier’s Friend’, his work had been syndicated across the States, making him a household name. President Harry Truman, on learning of Pyle’s death at the hands of a hidden Japanese machine-gunner, summed it up, saying nobody had ‘so well told the story’.
War Reporters: George Orwell
The life of a journalist who was never far from the front-line: George Orwell. His writing sought to rationalise and navigate the challenges of the day, and his early vision for a utopian socialist society slowly gave way to the dystopian warnings expressed in his novels.
War Reporters: William Howard Russell
Seema Syeda on battlefield scoops throughout the ages. William Howard Russell was one of the most prolific and revolutionary journalists of his time. Best known for his reporting on the Crimean War, he narrated the events of the ‘Charge of the Light Brigade’, and Tennyson wrote his celebrated poem of the same name – now […]
War Reporters: Xenophon
Introducing Seema Syeda’s new series on battlefield scoops throughout the ages. The practice of recording the events of war is as old as war itself. The likes of Herodotus and Thucydides are well known as great ancient historians of conflict. Often placed alongside them is Greek military commander and philosopher Xenophon. However, instead of being […]
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