Ed Vulliamy - An Accidental War Reporter: Serendipity, Sarajevo, Samarra and Ciudad Juarez

Ed Vulliamy was born in 1954 in Notting Hill, London (when it WAS Notting Hill) and educated at the universities of Oxford and Firenze, Italy.

He progressed from the Tavistock Times in Devon to Granada TV's 'World In Action', via the local TV news programme in Northwest England, and joined the Guardian in 1985. From 1989, he covered the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and was Rome correspondent from 1990-4. During this time, he covered the wars in Croatia and Bosnia at very close range, revealing the gulag of concentration camps operated the by Bosnian Serbs for Muslim and Croat inmates - for which he won every major award in British journalism. He became the first reporter to testify in a war crimes trial since Nuremberg, and went on to testify in seven cases at the Hague tribunal.

He served as US Correspondent for the Observer from 1994-5 and 1997-2003, one of the only British reporters to cover both the atrocities of Oklahoma and September 11 2001. He covered the wars in Iraq both times round, in 1991 and 2003 - revealing the scale of civilian casualties during the 'liberation' of 2003. After returning to the UK, he became senior writer for the Observer, writing on international affairs and music.

Vulliamy has long held a fascination for the US-Mexico border, and in 2010, Bodley Head published 'Amexica: War Along The Borderline', after two extended periods immersed on the front lines of the Mexican drug war, for which Vulliamy was described as 'a latter-day Graham Greene' by the New York Times. This year, Bodley Head publishes a work in progress over 20 years: 'The War is Dead, Long Live The War. Bosnia: The Reckoning'.

Twitter: @edvulliamy

This event is organised in support of the Bosnian Paralympic Team’s London 2012 participation. Go to: www.olympicdreams2012.com Twitter: @Olympicdreams12