Lindsey Hilsum

‘I was standing outside an apartment block that had been split apart by a missile. The words of a poem came to me when I could no longer find my own.’

In the four decades she’s spent as a foreign correspondent, Lindsey Hilsum has always carried a book of poetry with her. Poetry has helped her to make sense of the world and act ‘as a vaccination against despair’. In this special event, Lindsey will reflect on some of the poems collected in her captivating new book I Brought the War with Me and discuss her career, during which she has interviewed the warlords of Bosnia and Sudan, met child soldiers in Uganda and given testimony about the genocide in Rwanda.

Lindsey is Channel 4 News' International Editor. Her book, In Extremis: the Life of War Correspondent Marie Colvin, won the James Tait Black Prize for biography. She has covered the major conflicts and refugee movements of the past three decades, including Syria, Mali, Iraq, and Kosovo and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She has won many awards, including the Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year and the Royal Geographical Society Patron's Medal.

Hosted by John McAuliffe, poet and Professor of Poetry at the University of Manchester. Presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester.