On the face of it, One Day In July might induce a state of groaning, as yet another ‘victim’ with attend-ant publisher prepares to cash in by virtue of a rank media with an appetite for ‘terror’. Remember Douglas Wood, hostage in Iraq, triumphant with that VB stubby in hand? Now our potential hero is Experiencing 7/7 across the front cover as Survivor of the Edgware Road Bomb. One wonders how many more dates, not to mention people, will be claimed and maimed in this manner. On the back: the injured figure of the author, as seen in newspapers and by television audiences worldwide, repeated.

Looking beyond the cover, there is more to Tulloch than his bloody face. As an academic who specialises in media studies, sociology, and risk, he not only examines how the media have used, and in some cases hijacked, his own image, but fosters a cultured interest in ‘media imaging of contemporary warfare’, and in particular, Iraq:

Iraq is part of a much bigger picture, whether it’s emotional, ideological, psychological, cultural – I mean, there’s a whole range of things that are broader than Iraq. But what Iraq is doing is symbolising an awful lot that’s wrong about how we relate internationally, and how we relate internally and domestically.