Tim Butcher est un auteur, journaliste et animateur britannique connu pour ses récits captivants depuis les zones de conflit et ses voyages d'aventure. Son écriture se caractérise par une observation méticuleuse et une exploration approfondie des lieux qu'il visite, se penchant souvent sur l'histoire et l'impact des conflits sur les gens ordinaires. Le style de Butcher est à la fois analytique et engageant, offrant aux lecteurs des perspectives perspicaces sur des paysages sociaux et politiques complexes.
Chasing the Devil tells the story of Tim Butcher's audacious expedition from Freetown at the mouth of the Sierra Leone river overland through forest-covered mountains and malarial plains to the coast of Liberia. He ventures deep into areas not visited by outsiders for years. Both nations are on a developmental cusp and Tim explores whether national and international attempts to chase away the devil of war can succeed.
Facing down demons from his time in Africa as a journalist, Tim Butcher heads deep into this combat zone, encountering the devastation wrought by lawless militia, child soldiers, brutal violence, blood diamonds and masked figures who guard the spiritual secrets of remote jungle communities.
Despite warnings about marauding rebels, Tim Butcher travels alone along the Congo River for 2,500 kilometers, from Lake Tanganyika to Boma. Using various modes of transport, he explores "Africa's broken heart," driven by a desire to understand a country under the world's largest UN peacekeeping mission. His account is a brave and compelling eyewitness report.
"On a summer morning in Sarajevo almost a hundred years ago, a teenager took a pistol out of his pocket and fired not just the opening rounds of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history. By killing Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Gavrilo Princip started a cycle of events that would leave 15 million dead from fighting between 1914 and 1918 and proved fatal for empires and a way of ruling that had held for centuries."--Publisher's description.
On a summer morning in Sarajevo a hundred years ago, a teenage assassin named Gavrilo Princip fired not just the opening shots of the First World War but the starting gun for modern history, when he killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Yet the events Princip triggered were so monumental that his own story has been largely overlooked, his role garbled and motivations misrepresented. The Trigger puts this right, filling out as never before a figure who changed our world and whose legacy still has an impact on all of us today. Born a penniless backwoodsman, Princip's life changed when he trekked through Bosnia and Serbia to attend school. As he ventured across fault lines of faith, nationalism and empire, so tightly clustered in the Balkans, radicalisation slowly transformed him from a frail farm boy into history's most influential assassin. By retracing Princip's journey from his highland birthplace, through the mythical valleys of Bosnia to the fortress city of Belgrade and ultimately Sarajevo, Tim Butcher illuminates our understanding both of Princip and the places that shaped him.Tim uncovers details about Princip that have eluded historians for a century and draws on his own experience, as a war reporter in the Balkans in the 1990s, to face down ghosts of conflicts past and present. The Trigger is a rich and timely work that brings to life both the moment the world first went to war and an extraordinary region with a potent hold over history.
'Blood River' is a readable account of an African country now virtually inaccessible to the outside world and what is perhaps one of the most daring and adventurous journeys a journalist has made.
Ce récit a toutes les qualités évocatrices de l'art de Conrad qui cherche, surtout dans la description de la nature vierge et ténébreuse, non seulement à captiver l'intérêt intellectuel du lecteur, mais l'adhésion de son entière personnalité, en l'enveloppant dans un vaste filet de sensations.
