A War Artist's Diary chronicles war in Southern Africa with 100 exceptional drawings and verse from Peter Badcock's three best selling books on conflict below the 15th parallel. His powerful, photo-realistic pencil drawings, coupled with emotive verse, helped make his international reputation as one of the last war artists of the twentieth century. This book brings together Shadows of War (1978) and Faces of War (1980), which documented the turbulence and raw emotion of the Rhodesian Bush War, through to its end in April 1980. Images of War (1981) explored the gritty devastation of the South and South West African Border War, which drew to its own conclusion 10 years later in March 1990. A War Artist’s Diary provides a haunting take on those days in which young men men fought old men's battles, in pursuit - as it turns out - of very little. It is their eyes that burn through A War Artist's Diary and give it soul.
From the artist and author of Shadows of War, Faces of War and Images of War..............
A War Artist's Diary includes Peter Badcock's take on the Southern African context to these conflicts; his drawing technique; his five year journey as a war artist during the Bush War in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and the Border War in South West Africa/Namibia; detailed notes to the drawings; and fresh introductions to Shadows, Faces and Images of War. Peter Badcock is one of the last war artist's of the twentieth century and traces his accidental journey into drawing and writing about conflict in Southern Africa with disarming honesty and wry humour.
A War Artist's Diary pays tribute to the veterans of these wars: those who survived but carry memories of those dark days and those who died or suffered wounds of the mind and body. This book honours their endurance, their professionalism and their bravery.