War Hotels

War Hotels is an engrossing exploration of hotels in wartime, told through the prism of the now iconic hotels that were frequented by foreign correspondents, politicians, paramilitaries and spies in conflicts in Northern Ireland, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lebanon, Iraq, and Bosnia & Herzegovina. It focuses on the hotels that became closely associated with the brutal conflicts in which they were a part, such as the Europa Hotel in Belfast, the Continental in Saigon, the Commodore in Beirut and Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn.

Building upon the research undertaken for the Al Jazeera documentary series of the same name, this book tells the stories of these hotels in even more fascinating detail, drawing upon in-depth interviews with those who witnessed the tumultuous events that took place in and around the buildings, including Martin Bell, John Simpson, Jonathan Dimbleby, Peter Arnett and Robert Fisk. By using war hotels as a lens through which to convey the human stories and the conflicts, they provide not only ‘micro-histories’, but a rich vein of historical narratives and moving personal recollections.