Black Knights: On the Bloody Road to Baghdad

"The best reporter's book of the war so far—and it deserves to be one of THE books of the whole Iraqi crisis."—Robert Fox, Evening Standard "This is an exhilarating, honest, often scary account of modern war as close-up spectator."—The Sunday Times "Poole is a great reporter . . . possessed of a cool eye, natural sympathy and curiosity, and brisk honesty. He has immortalised [the Black Knights] in a true, funny and poignant book."—Patrick Bishop, The Daily Telegraph "[Poole's] account of the baptism of fire endured by a US tank company is starkly horrific in places. It is also witty, often laugh-out-loud funny, and spiced with some wonderfully colourful pen portraits"—Soldier Oliver Poole was one of the first journalists embedded with the US tank corps known as the Black Knights as they spearheaded the push into Baghdad in spring 2003. How did the troops—many of them under the age of twenty, some of whom had only recently acquired US citizenship—cope with fear and injury? How did they react to the killing? How were they changed by war? What, finally, was the impact on the people of Baghdad? Poole has written a frank and revealing narrative of life in the US Army. Part of the proceeds from Black Knights will go to International PEN, who helped Poole's translator and his family flee Iraq for America. Oliver Poole was The Daily Telegraph's Iraq correspondent from 2003–2006. He is the author of Red Zone: Five Bloody Years in Baghdad.