I have been very lucky to work for editors who have let me disappear to ‘hunt elephants’ in remote places – in particular John Witherow and Dominic Lawson, and foreign editors Sean Ryan, Con Coughlin, Bob Tyrer and Andrew Gowers. Those who encouraged me in my early days were Robin Pauley, Jurek Martin, JDF Jones, Peter Bruce, Stewart Dalby, John Ellison and Max Wilkinson.
Mostly I travel on my own. But life on the road – and in grim places such as the Umm Qasr trailer park – would have been much less fun without friends like Philip Sherwell, Dominic Medley, Lucrecia Franco, Mac Margolis, Husain Haqqani, and Paul Salopek, not to mention exchanging late night texts and satellite phone calls with my colleague Hala Jaber.
I very much enjoyed working with photographers Paul Hackett in Zimbabwe and Leticia Valverdes in the Amazon (the wonderful photograph on page 140 is hers) and Zimbabwe.
I’d particularly like to thank the photographer Justin Sutcliffe who seems to have been present in many a scrape. The amazing photographs of the fattening rooms in Calabar (pages 161 and 166) and the ambush in Helmand (pages 355 and 358) are his, as is that on page 193.
I would also like to thank my editor Annabel Wright for her ever-ready smile and good-natured patience in helping distil twenty years on the road into a few hundred pages, and my wonderful agent David Godwin
It would of course be impossible for me to do my job if it weren’t for a very supportive Mum and Dad and friends like Ronke and Tanya, and above all my gorgeous husband Paulo and son Lourenço. To them I say: I may be a Mum with a terrible secret in my wardrobe – a flak jacket. But one day I will swap it for a little black dress, I promise…
The articles which appear in this book are reproduced with the kind permission of the publications in which they first appeared. ‘Oh for a hero!’ © Financial Times / 9 July 1988; ‘A beast of a contest’ © Financial Times / 6 May 1989; ‘Westernised women dread return to veiled existence’ © Financial Times / 23 June 1989; ‘Where medieval ways die hard’ © Financial Times / 5 August 1989; ‘Pakistan asks FT journalist to leave’ © Financial Times / 21 September 1989; ‘The forest martyr’ © Financial Times / 8 December 1990; ‘The beach is the bottom line – Copacabana beach’ © Financial Times / 18 July 1992; ‘Extermination in Eden’ © Financial Times / 20 February 1993; ‘Carnival: a dance to the music of crime’ © Financial Times / 13 March 1993; ‘The strange case of the Bolivian Navy’ © Financial Times / 11 September 1993. ‘Bhutto the bride’ / 19 December 1987; ‘Smuggler’s paradise’ / 3 September 1988; ‘Jihad on stale bread and mud crabs’ / 17 September 1988; ‘You never know when you might need a wailer’ / 6 January 1996; ‘The poet with blood on his apron’ / 17 February 1996; ‘Dances in a Carriage – with Zambian Smugglers’ / 21 February 1996 © Christina Lamb, though these articles originally appeared in the Financial Times. ‘War on Top of the World’ and ‘I run the gauntlet of fear to siege city’ reprinted with kind permission of the Express Newspapers. ‘Psst…Wanna buy a tank?’ © 2007 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted from Time Magazine® with permission. ‘Why Rio is Murdering its street children’ / June 1991 / Marie Claire; ‘The missing children of Argentina’ / May 1992 / Marie Claire © Christina Lamb. ‘Delta blues: Nigeria’s poor prepare to fight for the oil riches of their country’; ‘To Zanzibar to be wed’; ‘Damilola thought he was coming to a better life in England – how wrong he was’; ‘Eat, eat, eat if you want to be loved… In Africa, big is beautiful’; ‘This is Wambi Bakayoko, who is 15. He is a chocolate slave. Last year he was sold to a plantation owner for £37.50 – what the average Briton spends on chocolate in just seven months’; ‘£5 for a slave girl with a nervous smile’; ‘I was one of the Taliban’s torturers’; ‘“I hear the bombs drop and I pray that they will end our suffering”’; ‘When Zena Karamzade’s dreams of being a doctor ended under the Taliban, she joined a dressmaking circle – or so the regime thought’; ‘Face to face with the Taliban leaders’; ‘Down to the Wire’; ‘For four hours Dora, aged 12, was gang-raped by Mugabe’s men’ © Christina Lamb / Sunday Telegraph. ‘Yes, I was a cynic until I met her – Diana’ / 7 September 1997; ‘Colonel Cox has a whole town to build’/ 6 April 2003; ‘Torture cells that kept a people in fear’/ 13 April 2003; ‘Iraq “destroyed weapons by 1994”’/ 8 June 2003; ‘Just thirty-two prize items still missing as treasures flood back to Iraq Museum’ / 15 June 2003; ‘“Have you ever used a pistol?’” / 2 July 2006; ‘Fonz of Kabul, hotelier and fast-talking fixer, found dead’ / 31 December 2006; ‘Where’s Bin Laden?’ / 18 March 2007; ‘Zimbabwe’s silent genocide’ / 8 July 2007; ‘It was what we feared, but dared not to happen’ / 21 October 2007 © Sunday Times. ‘Saddam stole our water’ / 27 July 2003 © Sunday Times Magazine. ‘Running with the bulls’; ‘Tea with Pinochet’; ‘Hail, the mini Bin Ladens’; ‘Where were the flowers, or the jubilant cheers?’ are taken from articles which first appeared in the New Statesman. ‘An awful lot of trouble in Brazil’; ‘A suitable case for treatment’; ‘“My People Trust and Love Me”: on the road with the President of Peru’ © The Spectator (1828 Ltd.).
Index of Articles
Financial Times
Bhutto the bride 19 December 1987 9
Oh for a hero! 9 July 1988 27
Smuggler’s paradise 3 September 1988 19
Jihad on stale bread and mud crabs 17 September 1988 36
A beast of a contest 6 May 1989 55
Where medieval ways die hard 5 August 1989 22
Westernised women dread return to veiled existence 23 June 1989 46
Pakistan asks FT journalists to leave 21 September 1989 65
The forest martyr 8 December 1990 123
The beach is the bottom line – Copacabana beach 18 July 1992 77
Extermination in Eden 20 February 1993 132
Carnival – a dance to the music of crime 13 March 1993 67
The strange case of the Bolivian Navy 11 September 1993 93
You never know when you might need a wailer 6 January 1996 174
The poet with blood on his apron 17 February 1996 176
Learning to dance on a Zambian train 21 February 1998 153
Daily Express
War on Top of the World 29 August 1989 58
I run the gauntlet of fear to siege city 17 March 1989 41
Time magazine
Psst…Wanna buy a tank? 9 January 1989 31
Marie Claire
Why Rio is murdering its children June 1991 82
The missing children of Argentina May 1992 96
Sunday Telegraph
Delta blues: Nigeria’s poor prepare to fight for the oil riches of their country 21 February 1999 157
To Zanzibar to be wed (A Zanzibari Wedding) 13 June 1999 185
Damilola thought he was coming to a better life in England – how wrong he was 3 December 2000 204
Eat, eat, eat if you want to be loved… In Africa, big is beautiful 25 March 2001 161
This is Wambi Bakayoko, who is 15. He is a chocolate slave. 22 April 2001 212
£5 for a slave girl with a nervous smile 29 April 2001 217
I was one of the Taliban’s torturers 30 September 2001 224
‘I hear the bombs drop and I pray that they will end our suffering’ 14 October 2001 230
When Zena Karamzade’s dreams of being a doctor ended under the Taliban, she joined a dressmaking circle – or so the regime thought 16 December 2001 236
Face to face with the Taliban leaders 10 February 2002 243
Down to the wire 11 August 2002 309
For four hours Dora, aged 12, was gang-raped by Mugabe’s men 25 August 2002 314
Sunday Times
Yes, I was a cynic until I met her – Diana 7 September 1997 179
Colonel Cox has a whole town to build 6 April 2003 269
Torture cells that kept a people in fear 13 April 2003 275
Iraq ‘destroyed weapons by 1994’ 8 June 2003 288
Just thirty-two prize items still missing as treasures flood back to Ira
q Museum 15 June 2003 279
Saddam stole our water (magazine) 27 July 2003 297
‘Have you ever used a pistol?’ 2 July 2006 351
Fonz of Kabul, hotelier and fast-talking fixer, found dead 31 December 2006 381
Where’s bin Laden? (magazine) 18 March 2007 331
Zimbabwe’s silent genocide 8 July 2007 324
‘It was what we feared, but dared not to happen’ 21 October 2007 367
New Statesman
Running with the bulls 8 August 1997 171
Tea with Pinochet 26 July 1999 191
Hail, the mini bin Ladens 24 March 2003 249
Where were the flowers, or the jubilant cheers? 31 March 2003 260
The Spectator
An awful lot of trouble in Brazil 12 September 1992 109
A suitable case for treatment 21 November 1992 114
‘My People Trust and Love Me’: on the road with the President of Peru 13 August 1994 102
Read On…
If you were moved by Small Wars Permitting, why not read Christina Lamb's other work, House of Stone, in which she captures not just the roots of a terrible conflict, but also a sincere belief that there is still hope for one of Africa's most beautiful countries.
Buy House of Stone
Copyright
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Published by HarperPress in 2008
Copyright © Christina Lamb 2008
Articles reproduced herein are the copyright of the individual publications in which they first appeared (see Acknowledgements) unless otherwise stated and are used with their kind permission.
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