In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum

Author : Lindsey Hilsum
Title : In Extremis: The Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin
Published : 21012
Publisher : Chatto & Windus
Pages : 416
Genre : Journalism / Biography

     Marie Colvin was glamorous, hard-drinking, braver than the boys, with a troubled and rackety personal life. She reported from the most dangerous places in the world, going in further and staying longer than anyone else. Like her hero, the legendary reporter Martha Gellhorn, she sought to bear witness to the horrifying truths of war, to write 'the first draft of history' and to shine a light on the suffering of ordinary people. Marie covered the major conflicts of our time: Israel and Palestine, Chechnya, East Timor, Sri Lanka - where she was hit by a grenade and lost sight in her left eye, resulting in her trademark eye-patch - Iraq and Afghanistan. Her anecdotes about encounters with dictators and presidents - including Colonel Gaddafi and Yasser Arafat, whom she knew well - were incomparable. She was much admired, and as famous for her wild parties as for the extraordinary lengths to which she went to tell the story, including being smuggled into Syria where she was killed in 2012. 

     Colvin was someone who I had never heard of until I came across the trailer for Rosamund Pike's film A Private War. I started to poke around online looking into who this amazing woman was. I was left in shock and awe of everything she had accomplished in her time on this planet. But I was only seeing it in snapshots, a report here or a small article there. So I decide to go in search of something that would better understand this woman as a whole.  In Extremis seemed to offer me exactly what I had gone in search for, so on my next trip to the book store, I made sure to snap up a copy and to dive in. I hoped I could not only learn so more about Colvin but also what it takes to put your life in the line going to place no one else would even contemplate going. What sort of person deliberately goes out of there where to head to a wars zone so the rest of the world can learn of what is taking place 

     As with and biography wort it's salt we start at the begin, Where she was born her life growing up and the events that first set her on her path.  To some extent, this comes down to her father, a man who showed no fear in the face of war. A certain discipline that seems to have soaked down into a young Colvin. From what I have seen and read be a military brat gives these kids a certain fearlessness that means they are more than willing to jump into situations that would course most people to turn and walk the other way. But not all of who she became can be entirely given up to who her father was. She seems to have had a suborn streak the ran through her from her first moments of life. She was someone who was going to do what she wanted come hell or high water. In her writing, the author does a great job of setting the stage for Colvin's later life. Giving us the right amount of back story buy perfectly selecting them in order to give us a better understanding of all the different facets of who she was. 

     It is to be amazing all the different places and people she ended up coming into contact with. It feels like she was there for a lot of the great key moments of recent history. I'm still not sure how much of this was down to luck and how much was down to her sheer arrogance and determination of will that got her into these situations. Maybe in part, it was the latter that drew her to these men who were determined to shape there world and countries. It was a curiosity to witness this American first hand. There is also in certain parts of the world the fact she was a woman and as such there did not see her as a threat. But more so something to be captivated by and in just a few cases someone to try and capture in some sort of twisted romantic fashion. In the case of Gaddafi, I would suspect that is exactly what he had in mind. But to underestimate her would be proven time and again to be there own loss. She existed at a time when reporters were the very people who shaped how we saw the world. It was no longer left up to historians to try and piece things together Colvin and others like her gave us a direct look into some of the most powerful men in the world and how they used war to grab at more power and control. 

     She is defiantly someone I would have like to have talked to in length about her experiences of the world. She strikes me as a deeply interesting woman to have known. But also one who was deeply troubled. She carried a great many demons with her she picked up along the way. It is had to imagine not doing so when you have cheated death so many time in the name of a good story. Not to mention her personal life which comes across just as volatile as the places she went to work. There seem to be a great many factors that would eventually lead to her being killed in Syria. She knew the risk that being a reporter means in a modern war zone and yet still went despite every bit of advice. But the legacy she left behind I feel is one that should never be forgotten. This was from a time when it took a special bread to go and do what she did, the world has moved on. Now anyone with a phone can give you a direct line into conflict. But back then it was the reserve of those crazy few who were willing to give it all.