Between the devil and the deep blue sky: Deadlines, domesticity and danger - Confessions of a foreign correspondent in Iraq, a true life story by Gina Wilkinson

Between the devil and the deep blue sky

What would you do to survive if trapped under a tyrannical regime or caught up in the chaos of war?

Reviews of Between the devil and the deep blue sky

In a world controlled by a merciless dictator, where violence and death are a daily reality, Australian journalist Gina Wilkinson's life is a surreal mix of domesticity, danger and deadlines. In this true-life story set during the final year of Saddam Hussein's bizarre rule and the months after the fall of Baghdad, Gina and her closest Iraqi friends face difficult choices as they struggle with dictatorship, war and terror.

When her aid worker husband is transferred to Baghdad, Gina postpones her successful career, following her partner to a tightly controlled world where foreign journalists are forbidden to reside. As she struggles with the unfamiliar role of ‘UN dependant spouse’, Gina befriends two very different Iraqi women and together they become entwined in a series of extraordinary events.

After the 2003 fall of Baghdad, Gina is appointed the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Iraq correspondent. The challenges and risks are enormous and to her horror Gina becomes embroiled in a Media Watch scandal.

Between the devil and the deep blue sky is a revealing account of the perils and pitfalls of life during Saddam Hussein’s final year in power, the US-led occupation and the demands of juggling domesticity, danger and deadlines in a war zone. It is sometimes frightening – with constant surveillance from the dreaded mukhabarat secret police; sometimes devastating – the loss of a close friend in the bombing of the UN’s Baghdad headquarters; and at times darkly humorous.

During this incredible journey Gina finds nothing is what it seems and there's no black and white when you're stuck between the devil and the deep blue sky of Iraq.