Shadowplay: A Memoir From Behind the Lines and Under Fire: The Inside Story of Europe's Last War

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Tim has been shot with bird pellet in Cairo, bruised by the police in Tehran, arrested by Serbian intelligence, detained in Damascus, declared persona non grata in Croatia, hit over the head with a plank of wood in London, bombed by the RAF in Belgrade, and tear-gassed all over the world. Originally from Leeds, Tim arrived at broadcasting from the road less traveled. Not a media studies or journalism graduate, in fact not a graduate at all, after a wholly unsuccessful career as a painter and decorator he worked his way through newsroom nightshifts, and unpaid stints as a researcher and runner before eventually securing himself a foothold on the first rung of the broadcasting career ladder. Style & engagement: (4/5)
Marshall has a casual writing style that I thoroughly enjoyed, although it seemed callous at moments, especially when writing about the devastating losses experienced in the war. However, with that casual writing style came a matter-of-fact, unvarnished description of the events and politics that shaped this conflict. Often histories written by journalists have such a stuffy air to them that they get extremely dry, and Marshall breaks that pattern with this book. I ultimately found his style engaging and interesting—even useful. Writing style is definitely a plus of this book. Twenty years on from the war's end, with the rise of Russian power, a weakened NATO and stalled EU expansion, this story is more relevant than ever, as questions remain about the possibility of conflict on European soil. Utterly gripping, this is Tim Marshall at his very best: behind the lines, under fire and full of the insight that has made him one of Britain's foremost writers on geopolitics. Marshall began his journalistic career reporting for LBC and was their Paris Bureau Correspondent for three years. He has also reported for the BBC and has written for a number of national newspapers. He was also the longstanding Foreign Affairs Editor and then Diplomatic Editor for Sky News.

Tim Marshall | Waterstones Tim Marshall | Waterstones

Marshall's book, Prisoners of Geography, [9] was released in the UK in July 2015 and in the U.S. in October 2015. [10] He continues to broadcast and comment on foreign affairs and is a regular guest on BBC, Sky News and on Monocle 24 Radio's 'Midori House'. [11] [12] Marshall with Robert Elms, BBC London 94.9, August 2014. Interview about Marshall's book Dirty Northern B*st*rds New & useful information: (4/5)
I really appreciate that this book exists. Much has been written about the Yugoslav wars leading up to Dayton, but there are far fewer books on the subsequent ongoing conflict in Kosovo. Kosovo doesn’t seem to have received the attention it is due, so I’m glad when a book published in 2019 is focused on it. Marshall also documented some of the political machinations happening in Serbia and among the NATO-allied countries that I hadn’t heard before. He sort of yada-yada-yada’d the last 18-or-so years of Balkan history, but I don’t blame him. As he put it, the rest of the world has been distracted from the Balkans, perhaps justifiably so. I would love it if his next book examined the political landscape of the Balkans in the 21st century. After three years as IRN’s Paris correspondent and extensive work for BBC radio and TV, Tim joined Sky News. Reporting from Europe, the USA and Asia, Tim became Middle East Correspondent based in Jerusalem. Comparison to similar books: (4/5)
This book compares favorably to other historical accounts/quasi-memoirs from journalists. I’ve been disappointed by books written by other journalists due to their dry, then-this-then-that-then-this-then-that style writing. Stylistically, Marshall is a cut above his peers. I’d highly recommend it.

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Twenty years on from the war's end, with the rise of Russian power, a weakened NATO and stalled EU expansion, this story is more relevant than ever, as questions remain about the possibility of conflict on European soil. Utterly compelling, this is Tim Marshall at his very best: behind the lines, under fire and full of the insight that has made him one of Britain's foremost writers on geopolitics. The cover, showing all Yugoslavia, suggests that the book will examine a lot more than just Kosovo- in practice it’s focused on the author’s experience in Kosovo, though he was also present in the Bosnian war. Even still, it’s focus is narrow; Marshall was based in Serbia proper for most of this time and so the book covers only this perspective, focusing more on NATO bombings of Serbia and discussing remarkably little about events in Kosovo. In fact individual Kosovo Albanians are only mentioned four times total in the entire book; if you’re looking to learn anything about Kosovo beyond the very basics you won’t find it here. Timothy John Marshall (born 1 May 1959) is a British journalist, author, and broadcaster, specialising in foreign affairs and international diplomacy. Marshall is a guest commentator on world events for the BBC, [1] Sky News and a guest presenter on LBC, and was formerly the diplomatic and also foreign affairs editor for Sky News.

Tim Marshall Books in Order (8 Book Series) Tim Marshall Books in Order (8 Book Series)

He has written for many of the national newspapers including the Times, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, and the Sunday Times. Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags" listed at Elliott & Thompson Accessed 15 April 2017 Nicholas Lezard (13 August 2015). "Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall - review". Evening Standard.

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At first I found this a difficult book to break into, as you're thrown right in at the end of the late 1990s after the breakup of Yugoslavia and at the dawn of the Kosovo War, with very little context for how you're there or what has happened, or who the major players are. Context is limited and drip-fed and I really feel that Marshall would benefit from having a chapter explaining more about this complex conflict. Keith Simpson MP's Summer Reading List - 'Tim Marshall... timely reminder of the importance of geopolitics in Prisoners of Geography...' ". Accessed 15 April 2017 The bulk of the book was written in the early 2000s, and so a short introduction and conclusion seek to bring it up to the present; unfortunately the latter is mostly focused on Russia.

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Finally, having spent 10 years in the region, and having used so few of the local words, it’s amazing how many spelling mistakes Tim manage to make in this book (Batjanica, Gotev je, persistently writing dj instead of đ and many more). This book was originally published in Serbo-Croat in 2002 but was more recently republished, adding an epilogue as so why we hear so little about the region these days. I found this quite a simple but effective way of tying things up and it was then that I noticed the evolution in his writing style.Shadowplay - Behind The Lines & Under Fire (The Inside Story Of Europe's Last War). A book which documents the downfall of Slobodan Milošević and contains Marshall's account of his experiences during the Yugoslav Wars. (Release: June 2019) Simon Redfern (13 September 2014). "Book of the week: 'Dirty Northern B*st*rds!': Britain's Football". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022. Tim Marshall, then diplomatic editor at Sky News, was on the ground covering the Kosovo War. This is his illuminating account of how events unfolded, a thrilling journalistic memoir drawing on personal experience, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with intelligence officials from five countries. It also reveals the inconvenient truth of how much the foreign intelligence services had to do with both making the case for bombing (KVM being run by CIA, the Rambouillet ultimatum etc.) as well as organizing the opposition to topple Milošević. Is that democracy? Serbia is in the same situation today with Vučić regarding freedoms and abuse, but no one seems to care, because of one small difference: he suits the West. This does create a sense of emotional distancing, as this book focuses on the politics rather than the people affected on the ground, and it therefore runs in a different vein of war correspondence and journalism to the likes of Marie Colvin. However, when read interspersed with Colvin's collected writings on Kosovo, I found my view of the conflict enhanced dramatically.