As romantic as it sounds, being a war correspondent brings along certain features of the job most of us probably wouldn't enjoy very much. The deafening noise of artillery fire. Watching grown men (and now women) cry with fright. Watching the endless stream of sick and dying. Witnessing the toll of war on the innocent bystanders. Matthew Halton got a good dose of all this and more as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's war correspondent during WWII. Some of his own colleagues were killed or captured at the front, too. Halton himself courted death on a few occasions, and when the fighting stopped, so did much of the attention he garnered as a famous broadcaster. He was really successful first as a foreign correspondent for The Toronto Star and later for the CBC. But he didn't live all that long, in today's terms, after the war to enjoy it. And the lifestyle he enjoyed while at the peak of his game certainly cost him in the end. I enjoyed this book for the swiftness of the prose. His son, David, has done him well in the telling. I could have done less with the scorecard David kept of when his father's predictions were "spot on" or somewhat amiss. He reminds us that nobody should have had to guess Hitler's intentions for the Jews of Germany, or for his intentions to get even with the victors of WWI. Matthew Halton laid it bear, and he did so in 1933. I also learned more about the early Toronto newsrooms. The rampant alcoholism was something even I observed myself in the late 1070's, although it was clearly on its way out by then. The journalism Halton experienced was not all that different from what reporters embedded with the troupes in Iraq experienced with regard to censorship and playing for the home team. But today's 24-hour news cycles, news blogs, and shredded newsrooms are much different such that news stars are much more about good looks and not so much good substance. I have new personal favourites, some with the online magazines, some from their books on war, some in podcasts, some in newsletters, and a few traditional reporters still working for the dailies. But there are so many choices. And once the news is out I am so frequently looking to my "friends" on Facebook for their reaction that the news is almost secondary. Today opinion is all. Matthew Halton had to wait until he returned from the front lines for feedback. No more. ( )