Shadowplay: Behind the Lines and Under Fire

The Inside Story of Europe's Last War

By: Tim Marshall

Narrated by: Tim Marshall

Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

A gripping eyewitness account of a major 20th-century military conflict by the UK's most popular writer on geopolitics.

The shattering of Yugoslavia in the 1990s showed that, after nearly 50 years of peace, war could return to Europe. It came to its bloody conclusion in Kosovo in 1999.

Tim Marshall, then diplomatic editor at Sky News, was on the ground covering the Kosovo War. This is his illuminating account of how events unfolded, a thrilling journalistic memoir drawing on personal experience, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with intelligence officials from five countries.

Twenty years on from the war's end, with the rise of Russian power, a weakened NATO and stalled EU expansion, this story is more relevant than ever, as questions remain about the possibility of conflict on European soil. Utterly gripping, this is Tim Marshall at his very best: behind the lines, under fire, and full of the insight that has made him one of Britain's foremost writers on geopolitics.

©2002, 2019 Tim Marshall (P)2019 Elliot & Thompson Audio

Excellent Book

If you want to understand geopolitics and relationships between countries Tim Marshall is the best, and this book did not disappoint. None of my history classes ever mentioned the Balkans so all of this was new to me. Perhaps Tim Marshalls books should be history textbooks, they are more interesting and more informative.

Fascinating

Better than expected. Narration gave the story quite a bit of color. Not too long, but not too short. Great work.

A very interesting true story

Thank you Tim Marshall! The story was read like it was developing under our own eyes. An interesting mix of how a story is reported from there field and the insight off a political analyst.

bad articulators

should have gotten a professional to narrate
this guy's vocal noises are nauseating
like listening to someone with bad table manners eat

Very interesting story, great narration.

Very interesting story, great narration. a great view into the experiences of a wartime correspondent.

Great listen :)

This audiobook kept my interest throughout the entire listen! Great entry way of learning the political history of the Balkans!

Interesting topic, written for the writer

The book is interesting but it appears to be an effort of self-satisfied eloquence. Too many witty quips, supposedly to be funny, get in the way of the narration.
Personal opinion of course, but I found it a missed opportunity to chronicle your this dark and interesting part of our history in a more up-tempo way.

Hardly worth the time, nothing terribly insightful

My advice is to look closely at the summary, and don't make the mistake I made, thinking this was going to be a comprehensive account of the Yugoslav wars in the '90s. As became apparent listening (and fairly presented in the summary), it is primarily about the latter part of the conflicts, Kosovo and the subsequent political fall of Slobodan Milosevic. I had expected more about Croatia and Bosnia.

But the real problem is that there is very little of interest in the accounts. There are some inside stories and rivalries of journalists, none particularly salacious, self-aggrandizing stories of the rigors of being a war correspondent, and cynical decision-making of military and intelligence officers. But nothing terribly new or illuminating. All of which made the heavy breathing and lip-smacking of an author reading their own material less tolerable than it might have been.