Anthony William Vivian Loyd (born 12 September 1966) is an English journalist and war correspondent, best known for his 1999 book My War Gone By, I Miss It So. He gained prominence in February 2019 when he tracked down a British ISIL bride, Shamima Begum.

Biography

Loyd attended Eton College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

War correspondent

He went to school for journalism and then went to Bosnia with a vague plan to cover the ongoing war. He started taking pictures but almost by accident an American reporter offered to buy some that he saw. So Loyd became a war photographer supporting himself by selling photos for 50 Deutsche Marks per photograph. His reporting was also carried by The New Statesman.

Shamima Begum

In 2019, Loyd found ISIL bride Shamima Begum in the Al-Hawl camp in Northern Syria. Loyd taped an interview with her where she stated she had no regrets about moving to ISIL-controlled territory.

Ukraine

When the Russians invaded in February 2022, Loyd was in Ukraine, and reported from there.

Author

My War Gone By, I Miss It So, is a book based on his experiences in Bosnia and Chechnya. In the book Loyd staggers chapters about war in Bosnia, Chechnya, and boredom tinged with heroin addiction in London.

He published a second volume of autobiography, Another Bloody Love Letter, in 2007. It covered his experiences in the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Awards

In the British Press Awards, Loyd won foreign correspondent of the year five times. He twice won the Prix Bayeux-Calvados for war correspondents. They were divorced in 2005, on an amicable basis, occasioned by Loyd's frequent absences reporting on wars. He remarried in 2007 and, as of 2008, was based in Devon with his wife, daughter and stepdaughter.

While reporting in Northern Syria (2014), he was shot twice in the leg by Syrian rebels to stop him running away.

Family

His paternal grandfather was Captain Vivian Loyd MC (1894-1972), a British army Captain and inventor and manufacturer of tanks and military vehicles. His maternal great-grandfather was Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart (1880–1963). His great-grandfather was not only a highly decorated British soldier, he was also one of the most wounded (eleven times, which included the loss of an eye and a hand).

Bibliography

Books

Articles

Book reviews

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References

Sources

  • Anthony Loyd on The Times and The Sunday Times
  • Anthony Loyd on the New Statesman