Lindsey Hilsum

English television journalist and writer

Lindsey Hilsum

Hilsum in 2018

Born|  (1958-08-03) 3 August 1958 (age 66)
Nationality| English
Education| University of Exeter
Occupation| Journalist
Notable work| Sandstorm (2012); In Extremis (2018)
Father| Cyril Hilsum
Awards| Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society; James Tait Black Memorial Prize

Lindsey Hilsum (born 3 August 1958) is an English television journalist and writer. She is the International Editor for Channel 4 News, and has reported from six continents, including coverage of the major conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Kosovo, Rwanda and Ukraine in the past two decades.[1] She is also a regular contributor to The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Guardian,[2] New Statesman,[3] and Granta.[4]

Hilsum is author of the books Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution (2012) and In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin (2018). She is the recipient of several awards, among which are the Patron's Medal from the Royal Geographical Society in 2017,[5] and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the biography category for In Extremis.[6]

## Biography

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### Early life

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Her father is professor Cyril Hilsum, a physicist best known for research that helped form the basis of modern LCD technology. Her mother, Betty Hilsum, died when Hilsum was 29 of cancer.[7] Her parents had met while at University College London on Scholarships.[8]

Her sister, Karen Burt, a British engineer and campaigner for the recruitment and retention of women in engineering, died in 1997 of a stroke.[9]

Hilsum attended Worcester Grammar School for Girls and the University of Exeter, where she graduated with a degree in French and Spanish.[10][11]

### Career

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Lindsey Hilsum is International Editor for Channel 4 News. She has covered major conflicts including the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 2011, she reported the uprisings in Egypt and Bahrain, as well as Libya. She has also reported extensively from Iran and Zimbabwe, and was Channel 4 News China Correspondent from 2006 to 2008. During the 2004 US assault on Fallujah, she was embedded with a frontline marine unit, and in 1994, she was the only English-speaking foreign correspondent in Rwanda when the genocide began. Before becoming a journalist, Hilsum was an aid worker, first in Latin America and then in Africa.

Her first book, Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution, was published by Faber in the UK in April 2012, and by Penguin Press in the US in May 2012, and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award (2012).[12] Her second book, In Extremis, a biography of the late war correspondent Marie Colvin, alongside whom she worked in many war zones,[13] was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the US in November 2018, and by Chatto & Windus in the UK in January 2019.[14] In Extremis was shortlisted for the 2019 Costa Book Awards in the biography category,[15] and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in the Biography category.[16]

Her next book, I Brought the War with Me: Stories and Poems from the Front Line, published in September 2024, is a memoir that Andrew Motion describes as "Remarkable: combines her exceptional experience as a war correspondent with selected poetry in an act of witness".[17][18]

### Views

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In an interview with The Oxford Student in 2010, Hilsum remarked that American news media "shows almost no images of death, of killing, of injury – the result was that people thought it was a blood-free war, and that affects how people feel about what their government does". In contrast, the Arab news media broadcasts much more graphic images of the reality of war. When deciding what is acceptable to broadcast from conflict zones, she argues that the crucial question is whether "you are using those images as propaganda, or whether you are using them to try and tell people the truth about war". She concedes that this "is a very difficult thing to get right", but is emphatic that it is not the place of a foreign correspondent to manipulate emotive images "to make a political point".[19]

## Bibliography

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* Sandstorm: Libya in the Time of Revolution (2012)
* In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin (2018)
* I Brought the War with Me: Stories and Poems from the Front Line (September 2024)[20]

## Awards

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Hilsum was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Essex in 2004 and has won several awards including the Royal Television Society Journalist of the Year, James Cameron Award, One World Broadcasting Trust award, Amnesty, Voice of the Listener & Viewer and the Charles Wheeler Award. In 2017, she was awarded the Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, "for promoting the understanding of global conflict and inequality".[21] She won the 2018 James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Biography) for In Extremis.[22] In 2019, she was conferred with an honorary doctorate by SOAS University of London.[23][24]

## References

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1. ^ "Lindsey Hilsum - Channel 4 News". Channel4.com. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
2. ^ "Lindsey Hilsum". The Guardian. London. 28 May 2006.
3. ^ Lindsey Hilsum, New Statesman. Archived 5 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine
4. ^ "Where is Kigali? | Lindsey Hilsum | Granta Magazine". Granta.com. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
5. ^ "Annual Review 2017 | Recognising excellence in 2017" (PDF). Royal Geographical Society. 2017. p. 31. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
6. ^ Chandler, Mark (19 August 2019). "Hilsum and Laing awarded £10,000 James Tait Black Prizes". The Bookseller. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
7. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029hvr
8. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029hvr
9. ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029hvr
10. ^ "University of Essex :: Honorary Graduates :: Honorary Graduates :: Lindsey Hilsum". Essex.ac.uk. 14 July 2004. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
11. ^ "Lindsey Hilsum - Speakers Corner". Speakers Corner. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
12. ^ Flood, Alison (8 November 2012). "Guardian First Book award 2012 shortlist announced". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
13. ^ Hilsum, Lindsey (22 February 2012). "My friend, Marie Colvin". Channel 4 News. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
14. ^ "In Extremis". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
15. ^ "Costa Book Awards | Behind the beans | Costa Coffee". www.costa.co.uk.
16. ^ "Lindsey Hilsum wins James Tait Black Prize". Felicity Bryan Associates. 19 August 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
17. ^ Lindsey Hilsum | I Brought the War with Me; Stories and Poems from the Front Line. Penguin Books. 19 September 2024.
18. ^ Hilsum, Lindsey (8 September 2024). "'After Rwanda, I felt I needed philosophical more than psychological help': journalist Lindsey Hilsum on war and the consolation of poetry". The Observer.
19. ^ Lighton, Alice (9 May 2010). "Interview: Lindsey Hilsum". The Oxford Student. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
20. ^ "Lindsey Hilsum". Felicity Bryan Associates. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
21. ^ "Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) honours top geographers" (PDF) (Press release). Royal Geographical Society. 8 May 2017. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
22. ^ "Tales of love and war win centenary book awards". ed.ac.uk. University of Edinburgh | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. 19 August 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2024.
23. ^ "Leading Pioneers And Innovators Honoured". The Voice. 3 August 2019.
24. ^ "Honorary Fellow Lindsey Hilsum | SOAS Graduation 2019 | SOAS University of London". SOAS University of London. 9 September 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2024 - via YouTube.

## External links

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* Lindsey Hilsum, International Editor, C4 biography
* Archived C4 biography
* Column at Channel4.com
* Julia Ziemer, "War didn't change my personality, it changed my philosophy- podcast interview with Lindsey Hilsum", LSE, 28 November 2018.
* Saleyha Ahsan, "Interview with Channel 4 News’ International Editor Lindsey Hilsum", Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge, 14 March 2024.

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