On the Front Line: The Collected Journalism of Marie Colvin


Book Description

Veteran Sunday Times war correspondent, Marie Colvin was killed in February 2012 when covering the uprising in Syria. On the Front Line is an Orwell Special Prize winning journalism collection from veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin, who is the subject of the movie A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike and Jamie Dornan.




In Extremis


Book Description

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Finalist for the Costa Biography Award and long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. Named a Best Book of 2018 by Esquire and Foreign Policy. An Amazon Best Book of November, the Guardian Bookshop Book of November, and one of the Evening Standard's Books to Read in November "Now, thanks to Hilsum’s deeply reported and passionately written book, [Marie Colvin] has the full accounting that she deserves." --Joshua Hammer, The New York Times The inspiring and devastating biography of Marie Colvin, the foremost war reporter of her generation, who was killed in Syria in 2012, and whose life story also forms the basis of the feature film A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike as Colvin. When Marie Colvin was killed in an artillery attack in Homs, Syria, in 2012, at age fifty-six, the world lost a fearless and iconoclastic war correspondent who covered the most significant global calamities of her lifetime. In Extremis, written by her fellow reporter Lindsey Hilsum, is a thrilling investigation into Colvin’s epic life and tragic death based on exclusive access to her intimate diaries from age thirteen to her death, interviews with people from every corner of her life, and impeccable research. After growing up in a middle-class Catholic family on Long Island, Colvin studied with the legendary journalist John Hersey at Yale, and eventually started working for The Sunday Times of London, where she gained a reputation for bravery and compassion as she told the stories of victims of the major conflicts of our time. She lost sight in one eye while in Sri Lanka covering the civil war, interviewed Gaddafi and Arafat many times, and repeatedly risked her life covering conflicts in Chechnya, East Timor, Kosovo, and the Middle East. Colvin lived her personal life in extremis, too: bold, driven, and complex, she was married twice, took many lovers, drank and smoked, and rejected society’s expectations for women. Despite PTSD, she refused to give up reporting. Like her hero Martha Gellhorn, Colvin was committed to bearing witness to the horrifying truths of war, and to shining a light on the profound suffering of ordinary people caught in the midst of conflict. Lindsey Hilsum’s In Extremis is a devastating and revelatory biography of one of the greatest war correspondents of her generation.




Richard Jewell


Book Description

Now a major film from Academy Award–winning director Clint Eastwood—starring Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, and Paul Walter Hauser​! This collection of captivating profiles from Vanity Fair writer Marie Brenner spans her award-winning career and features larger-than-life figures such as Donald Trump, Roy Cohn, Malala Yousafzai, and Richard Jewell—the security guard whose dramatic heroism at the bombing of the 1996 Olympics made him the FBI’s prime suspect. Previously published as A Private War, Marie Brenner’s Richard Jewell tells a gripping true story of heroism and injustice. In the early morning hours of July 27, 1996, three pipe bombs exploded at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, killing one person and injuring 111 others. Hundreds more potential casualties were prevented by the vigilance and quick actions of security guard Richard Jewell, who uncovered the bombs and began evacuating the area. But no good deed goes unpunished. Desperate for a lead, investigators and journalists pursued Jewell as a potential suspect in the case, painting him as an obvious match for the infamous “lone bomber” profile. Accused of being a terrorist and a failed law enforcement officer who craved public recognition for his false heroics, he saw his reputation smeared across headlines and broadcasts nationwide. After a months-long investigation found no evidence against him, the US Attorney finally cleared Jewell’s name. Yet Jewell would not be fully exonerated in the eyes of the public until the actual bomber confessed in 2005, just two years before Jewell’s premature death at the age of forty-four. In Richard Jewell, veteran journalist Marie Brenner brilliantly chronicles Jewell’s ordeal to share the story of an ordinary man whose life was shattered by a false narrative. This collection also includes Brenner’s classic encounters with Donald Trump, Roy Cohn, Malala Yousafzai, Marie Colvin, and others.




The Face of War


Book Description

A collection of “first-rate frontline journalism” from the Spanish Civil War to US actions in Central America “by a woman singularly unafraid of guns” (Vanity Fair). For nearly sixty years, Martha Gellhorn’s fearless war correspondence made her a leading journalistic voice of her generation. From the Spanish Civil War in 1937 through the Central American wars of the mid-eighties, Gellhorn’s candid reporting reflected her deep empathy for people regardless of their political ideology. Collecting the best of Gellhorn’s writing on foreign conflicts, and now with a new introduction by Lauren Elkin, The Face of War is a classic of frontline journalism by “the premier war correspondent of the twentieth century” (Ward Just, The New York Times Magazine). Whether in Java, Finland, the Middle East, or Vietnam, she used the same vigorous approach. “I wrote very fast, as I had to,” she says, “afraid that I would forget the exact sound, smell, words, gestures, which were special to this moment and this place.” As Merle Rubin noted in his review of this volume for The Christian ScienceMonitor, “Martha Gellhorn’s courageous, independent-minded reportage breaks through geopolitical abstractions and ideological propaganda to take the reader straight to the scene of the event.”




The Face of War


Book Description

Author's selection from her reporting on wars in progress and wars about to be, during eight years in twelve countries, when she worked as a correspondent for "Colliers."




On All Fronts


Book Description

“On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist beautifully outlines . . . what it means to seek the truth. It gave me a new faith in the power of reporting.” —Oprah Winfrey The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward’s singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism. Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and reporting from the center of Israel’s war with Hezbollah. Soon she was soon on assignment all over the globe. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward covered Bashar al-Assad’s reign of terror without fear and with courage and compassion. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and became a mother. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective. On All Fronts is the unforgettable story of one extraordinary journalist—and of a changing world.




A Private War


Book Description

Soon to be a major motion picture - starring Rosamund Pike, Stanley Tucci and Jamie Dornan. The book that inspired the film A Private War, based on acclaimed journalist Marie Brenner's centrepiece profile of Sunday Times Foreign Affairs correspondent Marie Colvin from this extraordinary collection. In February 2012, Marie Colvin illegally crossed into Syria on the back of a motorcycle. A veteran war correspondent known for her fearlessness, outspokenness and signature eye patch, she was defying a government decree preventing journalists from entering the country. Accompanied by French photographer Remi Ochlik, she was determined to report on the Syrian Civil War, adding to a long list of conflicts she had covered including Egypt, Chechnya, Kosovo and Libya. She had witnessed grenade attacks, saved more than one thousand women and children in an East Timor war zone when she refused to stop reporting until they were evacuated, and even interviewed Muammar Gaddafi. But she had no idea that the story she was looking for in Syria would be her last, culminating in the explosion of an improvised device that sent shockwaves across the world. In A Private War, veteran journalist Marie Brenner brilliantly re-creates the last days and hours of Colvin's life, moment-by-moment, to share the story of a remarkable life lived on the front lines. This collection also includes Brenner's classic accounts of encounters with Donald Trump, Roy Cohn, Malala Yousafzai and Richard Jewell.




Gellhorn


Book Description

A portrait of the preeminent female war correspondent describes her birth in turn-of-the-century St. Louis, her work in major cities throughout the world, her many powerful friendships, and her marriage to Hemingway.




Everything in Moderation


Book Description

'I've never met Danny Finkelstein but I think I'm in love with him. His book is such good company – sane, intelligent and witty. He deals with serious subjects in an immensely readable way ... If I'm asked to nominate my book of the year, this will be it' Wendy Cope




Citizen Witnessing


Book Description

What role can the ordinary citizen perform in news reporting? This question goes to the heart of current debates about citizen journalism, one of the most challenging issues confronting the news media today. In this timely and provocative book, Stuart Allan introduces the key concept of ‘citizen witnessing’ in order to rethink familiar assumptions underlying traditional distinctions between the ‘amateur’ and the ‘professional’ journalist. Particular attention is focused on the spontaneous actions of ordinary people – caught-up in crisis events transpiring around them – who feel compelled to participate in the making of news. In bearing witness to what they see, they engage in unique forms of journalistic activity, generating firsthand reportage – eyewitness accounts, video footage, digital photographs, Tweets, blog posts – frequently making a vital contribution to news coverage. Drawing on a wide range of examples to illustrate his argument, Allan considers citizen witnessing as a public service, showing how it can help to reinvigorate journalism’s responsibilities within democratic cultures. This book is required reading for all students of journalism, digital media and society.