Invasion by Luke Harding: Indie to host book signing for Guardian journalist's account of Ukraine war
Top journalist Luke Harding, who has spent over a year on the ground covering the Ukraine war and its build-up, will be signing copies of his new book about the conflict at the Bishop’s Stortford Independent's office.
The award-winning Guardian senior international correspondent's Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival was published on November 24.
Harding, 54, who lives in Stortford, will be signing copies at the Indie’s office at 7 Palmers Lane on Saturday December 17 from 10am to noon.
Retailing for £20, the book will be available on the day for £15. Author royalties will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee's Ukraine Fund.
The 330-page hardback is the first book of reportage from the front line of the Ukraine war, which started on February 24. It is described by publisher Guardian Faber as "a powerful and moving first draft of history".
Invasion is Harding's compelling chronicle of the largest war in Europe since 1945. He spent months reporting on the ground during the build-up to the conflict and afterward. The book tells of the initial days of shock and panic, the grim reality of this ongoing war and the human stories behind the headlines.
It also offers insightful portraits of the war's two great personalities: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an actor-turned-president who rallied support for Ukraine on a global stage, and Vladimir Putin, the Russian dictator who dwells in a strange and unreachable realm.
Harding examines the ideological, religious and personal reasons behind Putin's decision to invade. And he confronts a crucial question: which side will prevail?
With the ripple effects of the conflict being felt beyond Ukraine and Russia's borders, it is more vital than ever to understand how the situation on the front line will have profound effects for us all.
Invasion is No 1 New York Times best-selling author Harding's ninth book. In July 2020 the Indie held a signing session for his eighth book, Shadow State, based upon years of investigation, which reveals how Russian spies helped to elect Donald Trump as US president in 2016 and backed the campaign which resulted in Brexit the same year – and how they lied, deceived and murdered to do so, threatening the very basis of Western democracy.
Harding moved to Stortford in 2012 with wife and fellow writer Phoebe Taplin after the Kremlin deported him from Moscow, where he was the Guardian's bureau chief from 2007 to 2011. The couple’s two children attended Hockerill Anglo-European College. He has also reported from Delhi and Berlin, and covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
His seventh book, Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win, was a New York Times bestseller in late 2017. Other titles include A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin’s War with the West; The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man and Mafia State: How One Reporter Became an Enemy of the Brutal New Russia.
Harding's books have been translated into 30 languages. Two have been made into Hollywood movies. The Fifth Estate, based on WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy, co-written with David Leigh, was released in 2013 and starred Benedict Cumberbatch as Assange. Oliver Stone’s biopic Snowden, adapted from The Snowden Files and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden, appeared in 2016.
What others say about Luke Harding's Invasion
Lyse Doucet, BBC chief international correspondent in a review for The Observer – "Europe’s worst war in 80 years has scorched entire cities, cost many thousands of lives, torn countless families apart and sparked price hikes and hardship far and wide. It’s an impressive turnaround to publish a book as Russia’s onslaught still unfolds to devastating effect.
"Harding’s book... is framed as 'the first rough draft of history'. There aren’t many rough edges to this elegantly written, deeply researched and, most of all, lived history. Harding was there: in Kherson oblast (province), in January, weeks before the invasion and 'before a quiet terror descended'; in the Donbas, eastern Ukraine, in December, where the front lines were 'frozen' before becoming the hottest of front lines in February. He has stuck with this story. It shows.
"Places that dominated headlines for days and then disappeared are brought back and developed in detail: Chornobyl, where Russian tanks rumbled in on the first day, even into the forbidden nuclear area; Snake Island, where a Ukrainian border guard declared 'Russian warship, go fuck yourself', inspiring memes on stamps, T-shirts and more; Mariupol, a place not many of us knew, virtually wiped off the map; and Bucha, a pretty suburb with green picket fences now a byword for war crimes.
"As this war drags on, with its growing global consequences, there’s more talk... of trying to find that elusive peace. From the very beginning, many tried to clinch it; many failed. President Zelenskiy, knowing the mood of his people, now prefers the word 'victory'. A lot more history may still have to happen before an extraordinary moment like that. Then again, Luke Harding may already be writing his first rough draft."
Washington Post – “Having been based in Moscow until 2011, when he was expelled by the Kremlin for his critical coverage, and boasting a deep bench of sources in Russia and Ukraine, Harding is uniquely qualified to tell this story. He was in Kyiv when the invasion began and has spent much of the last year in the country. He’s a gifted storyteller, and his moment-by-moment reconstructions of the events in Bucha, and of the last stand of Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, stand out as almost excruciatingly harrowing."
Andrey Kurkov, Ukraine's most celebrated living writer – "Brilliant... Harding is one of the best experts on Putin's Russia. Invasion reads like an exciting military-political thriller, but all its characters and events are true."
Eliot Higgins, founder of investigative journalism group Bellingcat – "Essential reading for those who want to understand the most important conflict of the 21st century."
* Invasion: Russia’s Bloody War and Ukraine’s Fight for Survival, by Luke Harding, is published by Guardian Faber (£20). Order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
