The Only House Left Standing: The Middle East Journals of Tom Hurndall - Hardcover

Tom Hurndall; Robert Fisk

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1904563511 ISBN 13: 9781904563518

Publisher: Trolley Books, 2012

Synopsis

The unfolding events in the run up to the Iraq war had given Tom Hurndall, a 21-year-old British photojournalist, an increased curiosity and desire to journey to the Middle East. In February 2003, initially as an observer alongside the Human Shields, he left with a passion to make a difference, to record and photograph the truth for himself.

We follow his journey first from Baghdad, then to Amman and the Al-Rweished refugee camp in Jordan, and finally on to the town of Rafah in Gaza close to the Egyptian border, where US peaceworker Rachel Corrie had been killed just weeks previously.

On April 11th, unarmed and wearing an internationally recognizable orange peacekeeper jacket, he was shot in the head by an IDF sniper while carrying Palestinian children to safety. He died nine months later in a London hospital.

The book follows Tom's life and thoughts in the final weeks leading up to the shooting. Motivated by a sense of injustice and striving to remain objective we are drawn into his increasingly serious photographs and words, through extracts from his diary, emails and poems.

It is realised through collaboration with the Hurndall family on the eighth anniversary of that fateful day, and follows the 2008 BAFTA nominated Channel 4 film 'The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall'."

About this title

About the Author

Tom Hurndall (27 November 1981 - 13 January 2004) was a young British student and photojournalist, who was fatally wounded in Gaza in April 2003. Robert Fisk is a highly acclaimed British war correspondent and writer based in Beirut. He has published a number of books and has reported on the United State's war in Afghanistan and the same country's 2003 invasion of Iraq. Fisk holds more British and International Journalism awards than any other foreign correspondent.

Review

Excerpts from 'The Only House Left Standing - The Middle East Journals Of Tom Hurndall' a review for PHOTO8 by Jon Levy: "The Only House Left Standing is not a photo book, it is a testament. A testament of biblical proportions to the injustices endured the world over, dished out by the powerful on the weak. A testament to the indomitable spirit of love carried in the heart of a young man, questioning and trying to reason why things are as they are. It is a testament, as well, to the strength and determination of the people at Trolley Books who, together with Tom's family and their supporters, never gave up on the long, hard road they had to travel getting this book published. As the book opens we are presented immediately with Tom's words from NOVEMBER 2001: "What do I want from this Life?... I want to be proud. I want something more. I want to look up to myself and when I die I want to be smiling about the things I've done, not crying for what I haven't." If you know about the story of Tom Hurndall, you will know that his life ended in tragic death amidst the destruction of the Rafah refugee camp of Gaza. What this book tells you though, through his photographs and his writing, is that he died, as he began, with a heart full of love. Trolley Books have made a publication of the utmost importance that remembers and celebrates Tom's life while insisting his killers and their commanders are brought to justice." --'The Only House Left Standing - The Middle East Journals Of Tom Hurndall' for PHOTO8 by Jon Levy

Excepts from 'Tom Hurndall: a remarkable man's photographs of the Middle East' a review for The Guardian by Sean O'Hagan: "Tom Hurndall was a peace activist and an aspiring photojournalist. His photographs, alongside his journals, bear witness to the often terrible, sometimes uplifting, events he saw and experienced while living among families in Iraq, in a refugee camp in Jordan, and in the Gaza Strip. It was there on 11 April 2003 that he was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier while attempting to rescue a child who had been pinned down by gunfire. He died nine months later in hospital in London. He was 22. The Only House Left Standing - The Middle East Journals of Tom Hurndall by Tom Hurndall, Robert Fisk Buy it from the Guardian bookshop Search the Guardian bookshop Tell us what you think: Star-rate and review this book It is difficult, then, to look dispassionately at the photographs in The Only House Left Standing: The Middle East Journals of Tom Hurndall, which is published by Trolley Books this week. They are a mixture of reportage and citizen journalism of the most intense kind; a visual record of struggle and conflict left by someone who comes across as extraordinarily committed and fearless. As his writings show, though, Hurndall grappled with his fear every day. He travelled to Baghdad in 2003, one of a group of 'human shields' who arrived just before the invasion by American and British troops, determined to protest the war in the most direct and dangerous way. In a series of articles emailed to Manchester Metropolitan University's student magazine, Pulp, he wrote honestly and without self-pity about his constant doubts and creeping fears. One sentence stands out: 'When a man must lie to himself to do what he knows he should, that is when you know he is terrified.' Hurndall's journals, as Fisk puts it, 'show a remarkable man of remarkable principle'. His photographs, too, are testament to the strength of his commitment to the cause of non-violent protest, and to his courage. He caught the world around him in all its uncertainty and, as it grew more dangerous and threatening, his eye grew keener. The images he produced became, by turns, more unflinching and reflective. They tell their own story of a brief life lived to the full." --'Tom Hurndall: a remarkable man's photographs of the Middle East' for The Guardian by Sean O'Hagan

About this edition

• Publisher: Trolley Books
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1904563511
• ISBN 13: 9781904563518
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224