Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/11/01

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Subject: Re: Highways to a War
From: Claes Bjerner <claes.bjerner@pi.se>
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 97 14:01:52 -0000

Donal Philby wrote:

>Just finished rereading a novel called Highways to a War.  Written by
>Christopher Koch.  Koch is Austrailian and also author of The Year of
>Living Dangerously.  Both involve photographers.

Donal, could you please let us know a little more about this =
particular book. Like who published it, and when?

>The book cronicles the life of a "world famous" photographer from
>growing up on a farm in Tasmania to covering the war in Vietnam and then
>disappearing into Cambodia in l975.

I wonder if the main character was based on my old friend and mentor =
Neil Davies, who also was born and grew up in Tasmania. Just before =
he came to Vietnam in 1964 he was a pro footballer.

Neil was one of the most likable guys of the Nam press corp. And =
nobody else deserved better  to get the ultimate footage when the =
North Vietnamese tanks rolled through the closed gates of the =
presidential palace in Saigon late April 1975. Yes, Neil was a TV =
news photographer and worked at that time for Visnews. We have all - =
without exceptions - seen his historical film. 

Through the years Neil Davies got damaged several times. We used to =
compare him to a cat with seven lives, but we were proven wrong. He =
was shot more often than that. Finally fatally in Bangkok 1986 during =
a failed miltary coup. His old friend and soundman, the american Bill =
Latch, was killed with him. At that time Neil and Bill worked for NBC =
News. Presumably they were killed by "friendly fire". A government =
tank just 60 feet away opened canon fire straight at the camera crew. =
I wasn=B4t there at the time, but I have unedited copies of the =
tapes. Not only from Neil=B4s own tape (his camera kept rolling and =
recorded Neil=B4s death), but also from the camera of Gary Burnes of =
Visnews, and from the camera of Naoki Mabuchi of ABC News. They were =
together with Neil and Bill at that unfortunate time.

Even if Neil Davies was not the only inspiration for the main =
character I still would like to get hold of "Highways to War".


Harrison McClary wrote:

>Another book that chronicles a war photographer in a decent way is 
>DelCorso's Gallery by Philip Caputo.

Absolutely the best novel written about war photography and =
photographers. 

Claes