The High Low

By the time she died in Syria, in 2012, Marie Colvin was one of the world’s most renowned and courageous war correspondents. Recognised for her trademark eye patch - the consequence of a grenade in Sri Lanka, in 2001 - and revered as a journalist, with a 25 year tenure at The Sunday Times, Marie Colvin had a personal life as tumultuous as the war zones she covered. With the help of 300 of Marie’s journals, her friend and colleague, Channel 4’s International Editor, Lindsey Hilsum, has written a funny, frank and moving biography, In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin, where she separates the myth from the woman: as brave as she is glamorous; as fierce as she is vulnerable. Ahead of the release of A Private War - a film of Marie’s life, with Rosamund Pike as Marie and Jamie Dornan as photographer, Paul Conroy - we talk to Lindsey about her friendship with Marie, the reality of being a war correspondent and how you keep mentally strong and sane, the bad news cycle, social media and MeToo.