Faith and Tragedy: Twenty Tales from the War Zone by John Simpson: Book Review
John Simpson’s Faith Under Fire In War
John Simpson, the BBC’s famous World Affairs Editor, throws you headfirst into the chaos and intrigue of war zones in Twenty Tales from the War Zone: The Best of John Simpson. This collection of short, direct narratives chronicles his experiences across decades of reporting in war zones, offering his private perspective on some of the most pivotal and sometimes bitter moments in recent history.
Simpson doesn’t shy away from the brutality, nor how close he came to losing his life. He recounts dodging bullets in Afghanistan, staring down a murderous Osama bin Laden and witnessing the devastation of war-torn communities. In these challenging stories, he injects humour, self-deprecating wit and moments of unexpected levity, painting a nuanced picture of life amidst conflict.
One of the book’s strengths is its whirlwind tour of the tragedies of recent years and how it affected Simpson and colleagues. He takes you from the cocaine-fuelled jungles of Colombia to the absurdity of an odd interview with Colonel Gaddafi. Each story is a self-contained adventure, offering a glimpse into a different conflict and the human stories woven within it. You’ll meet courageous individuals, cunning warlords and ordinary people caught in the crossfire.
Simpson delves into the ethical dilemmas faced by war correspondents, questioning the purpose of their work and the impact of their reporting. He doesn’t shy away from his own biases and vulnerabilities, making him a relatable and thought-provoking narrator.
While the individual stories are captivating, the cumulative effect is even more powerful. By the end, you’re left with a profound sense of the human cost of war, the complexities of conflict and the enduring power of storytelling.
At 160 pages, it’s a fast read and has led some readers wishing for more. The struggles he faced opens the eyes of readers to the complex challenges of reporting from war zones and helps us to stop taking for granted the risks frontline journalists take.
Despite seeing the horror of the world first hand, Simpson has found and retained his Christian faith. After witnessing first-hand how Christianity saved South Africa from a civil war after Apartheid, he became a practising Christian. Today, one of his observations is people in the West have rejected following Jesus Christ without knowing anything about Him:
He said of his son, “I don’t want him growing up not knowing about religion,” thinking that Christianity, “doesn’t have any relationship to me. I don’t want that. He can reject it, fine, that’s his business, but he must reject it from the basis of knowing about it, not of ignorance. And so many people now, it seems to me, don’t understand what it’s all about. It’s just something they have not been exposed to, so they don’t understand, what it is, that they’re not interested in.”
– Fern Britton meets John Simpson, BBC2 December 2013.
Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).
By Paul Backholer. Find out about Paul’s books here.
