Context

• ‘The Manhunt’ was originally aired as part of a Channel 4 documentary, Forgotten Heroes: The Not Dead, in which ‘the painful truth of lives damaged beyond help is made meaningful for the rest of us’ (Joan Bakewell). In the film ‘The Manhunt’ is read by Laura, wife of Eddie Beddoes, who served as a peace-keeper in Bosnia before being discharged due to injury and depression. The poem describes the human cost of the conflict as it describes her experience on her husband’s return and the effect on their relationship of the physical and mental scars that he bore.
• Simon Armitage wrote "The Manhunt" for a 2007 documentary about military service-people who have returned to civilian life, and the lingering, often lifelong effects of sustained exposure to violence. The poem is narrated by one of the documentary’s participants, Laura Beddoes. Beddoes’s husband, Eddie, was injured in combat and was discharged due to poor mental health, primarily severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The poem, initially titled "Laura's Poem," explores the lasting impact of such trauma on those who have experienced it and on the people closest to them.