Lindsey Hilsum

I am not brave enough to be a war correspondent but that doesn’t stop me from wishing for the courage to do so. In Extremis took a considerable amount of time to finish because the details of Marie Colvin’s life and the horrors she witnessed had to be digested in small bites. The stories she reported in the 30 years preceding her death were straight out of headline news but with the specificity of detail missing from the nightly news. She went everywhere and knew everyone worth knowing show more from Kosovo to Tripoli to Tehran. At the same time her personal life was equally volatile and helped fuel her descent into alcoholism. Her lack of regard for her personal safety led her to scoop stories no one else dared tackle. The irrational risks she undertook led to the loss of an eye in Sri Lanka and ultimately her death in Syria. There she was tracked and targeted by Assad to prevent her reports of the atrocities occurring and discourage other journalists. She remains an inspiration for those seeking to shine the light of truth. show less

Being free of televisions and newspapers, I’d never heard of Marie Colvin; so after Lindsey Hilsum’s In Extremis I know a little. Colvin was fascinating; breathtakingly brave yet afflicted with PTSD; intelligent yet a chain-smoking alcoholic; a skilled judge of character yet with terrible taste in men. She specialized in war reporting, turning up in Kosovo, Chechnya, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Syria. Her reporting was always about civilians caught in war zones, and she show more sympathized with the underdog – or who she saw as the underdog; she sometimes comes across as favoring terrorist groups. I imagine the problem of a news reporter wanting to cover the war in Sri Lanka (for example). In order to get into Tamil Tiger territory, she has to appear favorable or at least not unfavorable to Tamil Tiger ideology, and her reports have to continue to be favorable as long as she’s there – else at best she’ll lose access and at worst she’ll lose a lot more. Thus her seemingly favorable reports on one of the world’s most brutal terrorist groups. Yet I don’t want to come across as critical; this woman was heroic beyond my imagining. She’s credited with saving numerous civilian lives in East Timor by remaining behind while all other Westerners evacuated, preventing a massacre by Indonesian troops. She lost an eye in Sri Lanka, and her life in Syria (ironically, because there’s evidence her use of Skype to file stories allowed the Syrian military to deliberately target her with an artillery barrage). I have no doubt she arrived in Valhalla trailing clouds of glory.

Illustrations of Colvin, friends and family, and war scenes. Ironically there’s very little of Colvin’s writing; I’ll have to look up some of her stories. Recommended. show less

Fearless, reckless, addicted to adventure and danger, all descriptions used to describe war correspondent, Marie Colvin. Her life from the beginning was one of non conformity. Her father often despaired of his daughters decisions, and his early death left Marie feeling guilty and needy. Now she would never gain her father's approval, something that haunted her. She was full of contradictions, throwing herself in danger in the most notorious places, yet yearning for a stable, loving marriage show more and children.

She reported on all the major atrocities of our times. Would meet Gaddaffi, who was one strange duck.
Arrafat and his wife would befriend and try to protect her. She would leave part of herself in Sri Lanka, and report on carnages everywhere. When other reports left the dangerous areas for safety, she would stay longer, always aware that her stories mattered. They showed the world the injustices happening. She was hard drinking, smoked continuously, partied hard, but somehow managed what few others reporting could and did.

Her home life was messy, she had many relationships, but they couldn't hold up under her lifestyle. This was a very well researched book, and I loved how thoughtfully it was put together. Told with empathy, and honesty. A woman who put everything on the line for truth. The author reads the book, and while i loved the tone of her voice, I wished the speed with which she read had been more consistent. show less

Audio book read by author. This is an affecting, harrowing account of the life of war correspondent, Marie Colvin, who was killed in Syria, trying to leave Homs, in 2012. Colvin was an outsize character, fascinating to others, a prodigious drinker, and a dedicated and effectively fearless reporter. She dedicated her professional life to being the voice of the innocent, civilian victims in some of the most fiercely violent conflicts around the world, including Chechnya, East Timor, Libya, show more Egypt, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, and ultimately Syria, where she would die at the age of 56. The book recounts her experiences under-fire, getting into and out of war zones, ignoring other peoples' warnings about when it was time to leave, as well as her association with figures such as Arafat and Ghadaffi. But most of all, the book tells the story of her dedication to reporting the toll on civilians caused by the various conflicts. She was committed to the notion that her reporting of the toll on women and children could change the events, the world. In a sense, maybe she was right--after her death, survivors and partisans of conflicts in Sri Lanka and Syria, in particular, remembered her participating and mourned her loss. I was not convinced that the reporting achieved change: I wish it were so but don't believe it.

That, however, may be exactly the point of why you would want to read this book. As the author says, Marie never lost her humanity and her faith in the importance of being there, on the ground, to witness the violence and suffering. It seems she kept some core of herself immune from the horrors she witnessed so that she could continue reporting. That core remained inviolate, even as she pursued much reckless behavior, in her relationships with men, in her drinking and partying, in her neglect of sleep, health, food, in her PTSD, in the loss of an eye to shrapnel.

Determined as she was in pursuing her career as a war correspondent and not allowing her gender to impede, she did have many devoted friends, lovers, and family. She longed for a stable family life but was unable to put that together for herself. She discovered sailing and that became a core solace in her life.

I believe the author wants to get across just how charismatic, loved, and important to her friends she was. I don't doubt it, but to me how exasperating she was, her hubris, her lack of sweet common sense was even more powerfully portrayed. I realized that I was experiencing her as though she were an explorer, crossing a frozen terrain barefoot, or swimming around the world, or a senseless genius who can just do no other than the thing she has devoted herself to. Marie Colvin was a fascinating and heroic character who saw things I cannot imagine. This story of her life is fascinating to read and I recommend it. show less