Dispatches from the Front

A Hill Times Best Book of 2014
Shortlisted for the John W. Dafoe Book Prize
Finalist for the Ottawa Book Awards
Shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-fiction
Longlisted for the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
Longlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize

“In this biographical book by his son David, himself a distinguished broadcaster, the elder Halton became the hypnotic voice of the Second World War that Canadians relied on to tell them what and how their fighting men were doing in combat overseas.” Winnipeg Free Press
 
“A book-length treatment of Halton was long overdue. Luckily for readers, David Halton has lived up to his father’s exacting standards.” Toronto Star
 
“This is a clear-eyed, well-written and important book about a great journalist.” Ottawa Citizen
 
“Dispatches from the Front is a well-wrought tribute to a man and a craft, the best account ever written of a Canadian reporter’s life and work.” Literary Review of Canada
 
“An important, well-researched and highly readable book.” Gene Allen, J-Source
 
“David Halton’s biography of his father, Matthew Halton, whose voice brought the Second World War into Canadian homes, is an important book.” Times Literary Supplement
 
“An extraordinary book that compellingly limns Matt’s extravagant, adventurous, achievement-filled, and far-from-perfect life. While doing so, David [Halton] also creates a vivid portrait of one of the most dramatic periods of the last century—the run-up to the Second World War and the conflict itself.” Anthony Wilson-Smith, Policy Magazine
 
 “David Halton’s biography of his father Matthew Halton is a fascinating tale of an international journalist who had humble roots in Pincher Creek.” Pincher Creek Echo
 
“[Halton’s] book is well-researched, comprehensive and highly readable. It is a fascinating look at his father’s life, warts and all.” Victoria Times Colonist
 
“Authentic and wholly absorbing….With astonishing candour, intimate detail and powerful insights, David Halton unlocks the legend of his internationally acclaimed father. Riveting and revealing!” Lloyd Robertson, CTV News – W5
 
“This is much more than one man’s memoir of his father. It is a tribute to one of Canada’s national treasures.” Morley Safer, CBS 60 Minutes
 
“Like an iron filing to a magnet Matthew Halton was inexorably drawn to WW2’s front lines – from North Africa to Berlin. Acknowledged as one of the very best correspondents covering the war his exploits at the fronts and his spirited carousing between battles has been painstakingly researched and colourfully recorded by his son David. As a result, viewing the war as seen by someone who described it as it was happening all around him makes for an extraordinary read.” Maj.-Gen. (Rtd.) Lewis Mackenzie, former UN peacekeeping commander
 
“This is an ode to bravery and to journalism. Every Canadian should know Matthew Halton’s story.” Wendy Mesley, CBC reporter/anchor

“At last a first class biography of Matthew Halton, the greatest Canadian foreign and war correspondent. Well-researched and well-written, this study by his son is frank and fair, and the book tells us much about Canadian journalism and broadcasting in the golden age.” J.L. Granatstein, author of The Oxford Companion to Canadian Military History