For you the war is over: Falklands War Journalist

A new book is published by a British journalist sent to cover the Falklands War in the early 1980's:

Muswell Hill journalist tells story of Falklands war capture

Rhiannon Edwards
Thursday, March 10, 2011



Ian Mather

Ian Mather will remember forever the words of an Argentine naval officer uttered to him in an airport lounge in Buenos Aires in 1982: “for you the war is over.”

This pronouncement marked the beginning of a three-month incarceration in an Argentine cell for Mather and two of his journalistic colleagues, suspected of being military spies during the Falklands War.

Mather had eagerly gone to Argentina at the beginning of the conflict as The Observer’s defence correspondent – only to be caught up in a misunderstanding which saw him imprisoned for the duration of the war.

Now the journalist, who began his 48-year career at the Press Association, has decided to tell his story in a self-published book – its title taken from those enduring words: For You The War Is Over.

Sat in his Muswell Hill living room, where he has been based for 30 years, Mather takes a very journalistic view of the event.

“I wanted the book to be realistic. It is a non-fiction work, it isn’t dramatised in any way. A lot of my peers believe that I was too realistic, though. Some people have said that I should have made it more dramatic. They are, of course, concerned with the altruistic side of journalism: that there is a journalistic mission to document and explain events. I didn’t want to be a martyr.”...

Looks to be an interesting recounting. Go here to read more on this..

(H/T Milblogging.com)