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Excess Baggage

Image for Afghanistan, Libya, Chechnya

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Afghanistan, Libya, Chechnya

Duration:
30 minutes
First broadcast:
Saturday 28 May 2011

John McCarthy talks to three writers who have reported as freelancers from conflict zones. Lucy Morgan Edwards worked in Afghanistan both during and after the Taliban regime as an aid worker, journalist and election observer. Despite the risks she grew to love the country and its people. Benjamin Hall's thirst for front line journalism took him to Misrata in Libya at the height of Gaddafi's attacks on the rebel city and Oliver Bullough wrote from Chechnya as it struggled against Russian domination. They tell John about the practical difficulties and excitement of travelling in such dangerous places without backup.

Producer: Harry Parker.

  • Lucy Morgan Edwards

    is a journalist and writer. She lived and worked in Afghanistan for six years. She first went as an aid worker at the height of the Taliban regime in Kandahar Later on she was an election monitor at the 2002 Emergency Loya Jirga; a freelance journalist; a Political Advisor to the EU Ambassador in Kabul and to the Chief Observer of the 2005 Parliamentary elections.

    The Afghan Solution: The Inside Story of Abdul Haq, the CIA and How Western Hubris Lost Afghanistan
    Publisher: Bactria Press
    ISBN: 978-0956844903

    Find out more The Afghan Solution

  • Benjamin Hall

    is freelance journalist who has written for Esquire, the Sunday Times and the New York Times. After university and a year in a newspaper office Benjamin headed for Iraq where he intended to make a television documentary but instead moved into written journalism. He has since travelled to Haiti, in the wake of the earthquake, and recently to Misrata in Libya.

    Find out more about Benjamin Hall

  • Oliver Bullough

    is a freelance journalist and author. He lived in Russia for seven years where working as a journalist for local Russian papers and Reuters. He also travelled to Chechnya to cover the 2nd Chechen war. He was there during the sieges of Beslan and the Moscow Opera House. Oliver is currently travelling Europe talking to Chechnyan exiles.

    The Last Man Alive
    by Oliver Bullough
    Published in Ox Travels: Meetings with remarkable travel writers
    Publisher: Profile Books
    ISBN-10: 184668496X
    ISBN-13: 978-1846684968

    Find out more about Oliver Bullough

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    Excess Baggage

    Travellers' Tales from home and around the world: their destinations, experiences and issues arising...

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