Most Popular Books by JOHN BERGER

On October 7th 2001, US-led forces invaded Afghanistan, marking the start of George Bush and Tony Blair''s "War on Terror." Six years on, where have the policies of Bush and Blair left us? Bringing together some of the finest contemporary writers, this wide-ranging anthology, from reportage and "faction" to fiction, explores the impact of this "long war" throughout the world, from Palestine to Iraq, Abu Ghraib, the curtailment of civil liberties and manipulation of public opinion. Published in conjunction with Stop the War coalition and United for Peace and Justice, War With No End provides an urgent, necessary reflection on the causes and consequences of the ideological War on Terror.

Booker Prize-winning author John Berger presents a collection of moments, each supremely vivid, that together make up a frieze of human history at the end of the millennium as well as a subtle and affecting self-portrait of their author. Using careful, intensely visual prose snapping frozen vignettes of life, these twenty-nine "photocopies" teach us about lying and self-invention, dignity and tenderness, charity and courage. Overflowing with the sights, sounds, and smells of life, Photocopies is a masterpiece from one of the most important chroniclers of our time.

In this quietly revolutionary work of social observation and medical philosophy, Booker Prize-winning writer John Berger and the photographer Jean Mohr train their gaze on an English country doctor and find a universal man--one who has taken it upon himself to recognize his patient''s humanity when illness and the fear of death have made them unrecognizable to themselves. In the impoverished rural community in which he works, John Sassall tend the maimed, the dying, and the lonely. He is not only the dispenser of cures but the repository of memories. And as Berger and Mohr follow Sassall about his rounds, they produce a book whose careful detail broadens into a meditation on the value we assign a human life. First published thirty years ago, A Fortunate Man remains moving and deeply relevant--no other book has offered such a close and passionate investigation of the roles doctors play in their society. "In contemporary letters John Berger seems to me peerless; not since Lawrence has there been a writer who offers such attentiveness to the sensual world with responsiveness to the imperatives of conscience." --Susan Sontag

"This book is a ecord, in words and more than 90 black-and-white photographs, of Mohr''s journeys to such places as Romania, Karachi, NManilla, Algeria, Lapland and Nicaragura. It illuminates his ongoing concern with humanitarian issues as well as his bemused observations regarding clashes between international policy and local politics and personalities, between media hype and traditional magic". -- Jacket.

In A Seventh Man, John Berger and Jean Mohr come to grips with what it is to be a migrant worker -- the material circumstances and the inner experience -- and, in doing so, reveal how the migrant is not so much on the margins of modern life, but absolutely central to it. First published in 1975, this finely-wrought exploration remains as urgent as ever, presenting a mode of living that pervades the countries of the West and yet is excluded from much of its culture.

Published to celebrate John Berger''s 70th birthday, this is a collection of his poems, drawings and photographs. It includes 46 poems written between 1956 and 1994. "At Remaurian", a sequence of poems from the early 1960s is accompanied by nine photographs taken by Berger.;There are two gate-fold triptychs of drawings, as well as a self-portrait made in 1945 when Berger was an art student.

When the Japanese Empire went to war with the Allies in December 1941, it had already been fighting in China for 10 years. During that time it had conquered huge areas of China, and subjugated millions of people. The Japanese needed to control the Chinese population in these occupied territories, and for this reason they set up governments from amongst the leaders of the Chinese who were willing to cooperate with them. These so-called ''puppet'' governments were designed to rule on behalf of the Japanese while firmly under their overall control. In turn, the puppet governments needed their own armed forces to help them maintain control over the populace and so they raised their own ''independent'' armed forces. These puppet armies were large in number, reaching a total of well over 1 million before 1945. Although poorly armed and equipped, these forces had an influence on the Japanese war effort through sheer numbers.The Chinese puppet soldiers ranged from the well-drilled and trained regular Army of the Last Emperor of China, Pu Yi, who ruled the newly-formed state of Manchukuo, 1932-45, to the irregular Mongol cavalry who served alongside Japanese troops in the ''secret war'' waged in the Mongolian hinterlands. The troops were dismissed as traitors by the Chinese fighting the Japanese, and they were equally despised by the Japanese themselves. The troops were motivated by a range of reasons, from simple survival to a loyalty to their commander. The fact that so many Chinese were willing to fight for the Japanese was embarrassing to all sides, and for this reason has been largely ignored in previous histories of the war in the East. In the first of a three-volume series, Philip Jowett tell the story of the Chinese who fought for the Japanese over a 14 year period. He describes in detail the organization, training, actions, uniforms and equipment of these forces, including detailed orders-of-battle. Volume 1 contains many rare and previously unpublished photos, as well as color plates illustrating the uniforms and insignia of the armies. The air forces and navies of these states are also described in detail, incl. color aircraft profiles. In a series of appendices, the author provides selected orders of battle as well as biographies of notable military commanders. This is a fascinating insight into a hitherto-neglected aspect of Second World War and Asian military history. This is a limited edition reprint of just 500 copies, each copy numbered and signed by the author.

Two essential plays from Berger and Bielski on art, politics and liberation Goya''s Last Portrait and The Question of Geography are the result of collaboration between John Berger and the actress and writer Nella Bielski. Here, collated for the first time as part of the Essential John Berger Series. Goya''s Last Portrait, is a study of the artist looking back on his work and drawing the outline of the relationship between art and life. Having painted the darkest images of the soul, the horrors of war, as well as the vibrant colours of aristocratic life, Goya''s questions whether he has reflected life or changed it. The Question of Geography, premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company, i s set in Magadan, a town in the Soviet Far East where former political prisoners, known as "Zeks," are forced to live after serving their sentences. The play delves into themes of exile, displacement, the lasting effects of political repression, and the struggle to rebuild lives after imprisonment.

In one of the most eloquent accounts of photography ever devised (originally published in 1982 and unavailable for many years), the writer John Berger and the photographer Jean Mohr set out to understand the fundamental nature of photography and how it makes its impact. Asking a range of questions ''What is a photograph?'' ''What do photographs mean?'' ''How can they be used?'' they give their answers in terms of a photograph as ''a meeting place where the interests of the photographer, the photographed, the viewer and those who are using the photography are often contradictory''. From these beginnings they develop a theory of photography that has at its centre the form''s essential ambiguity, arguing that photography is totally unlike a film and has nothing to do with reportage. Rather, it constitutes ''another way of telling''. The unique combination of critic and photographer results in a work that moves beyond the landmarks established by Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag to establish a new theory of photography. This unique combination of words and pictures includes 230 photographs by Jean Mohr

Titian: Nymph and Shepherd is presented as a series of stimulating letters exchanged between the internationally renowned author and art critic John Berger and his daughter, Katya. This correspondence is the extraordinary vehicle for a series of insights into the everyday life and the art of the great Venetian master, following an uncanny incident at the great exhibition of his work staged in Venice in 1990.

Berger on Drawing is a new anthology of essays in which John Berger explores that most primary and most primal of all art drawing. The 16 texts are gathered from nearly half a century of the author’s engagement with the activity of drawing, both as a writer and as a practitioner. They are published together in one volume for the first time, accompanied by newly commissioned pieces : including a major collaborative essay by John Berger and his son, the painter Yves Berger; and an exchange of letters on drawing between John Berger and the American art historian James Elkins (author of, amongst other What Painting Is , The Object Stares Back, Stories of Art and Pictures and Tears ). As we have come to expect from Berger, the book offers many fascinating and unexpected insights into this intriguing subject, ranging from his account of a journey deep into the Chauvet Caves to see some of the earliest drawings ever made, right up to present day encounters with the contemporary drawn image.