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I Brought the War with Me

Stories and Poems from the Front Line

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I Brought the War with Me

By: Lindsey Hilsum
Narrated by: Lindsey Hilsum, Mikhail Sen, Nadia Albina
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

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 nearly four decades as a journalist covering conflict from Rwanda to Kosovo to Palestine, Channel 4 News International Editor Lindsey Hilsum has always carried a book of poetry. In Ukraine, she tweeted a poem a day, and people began to read, to share, to ask for more.

Here, Lindsey collects her favourite poems from ancient times to modern, by writers from all around the world. Alongside each, she recalls a memory from her own work, whether interviewing the warlords of Bosnia, meeting child soldiers in Uganda or giving testimony in Rwanda. Her prose reveals comic absurdity and astonishing courage, meaning and its absence, unexpected moments of love and the untold consequences that come long after most cameras disperse. She explores the pity of war – and its fatal attraction.

'Remarkable: combines her exceptional experience as a war correspondent with selected poetry in an act of witness' ANDREW MOTION
'Profound, revelatory, distressing and timely' CAROL ANN DUFFY
'Fantastic, beguiling and movingly profound' WILLIAM BOYD
'Brings us darkness and light in the most moving, magical way' CHRISTINA LAMB

© Lindsey Hilsum 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

 Art & Literature Collections & Anthologies Death, Grief & Loss Journalists, Editors & Publishers Poetry Themes & Styles War Africa Middle East
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Critic reviews

Innovative... I Brought the War with Me isn’t just an excellent anthology. It also makes one reflect, not always comfortingly, on news reporters, poets and their relation to the terrible deeds of the world (William Wootten)
I can think of no better use of poetry in any anthology I have ever read: a profound, revelatory, distressing and timely account of humanity at war (CAROL ANN DUFFY)
As long as there has been war, there have been poets chronicling it; Lindsey Hilsum has woven poems and war stories together to bring us darkness and light in the most moving magical way (CHRISTINA LAMB)
A fantastic, beguiling and movingly profound book. Memorable and inspiring (WILLIAM BOYD)
'A really good book... [and] very interesting memoir' (ALASTAIR CAMPBELL)
A book of great power and poignancy... Lindsey Hilsum has no end of courage, sustained by an intellectual and emotional hinterland that makes her the finest foreign affairs journalist of her generation (FERGAL KEANE)
Lindsey Hilsum writes beautifully, with so much integrity, sensitivity, true experience and courage, her prose combines with these poems to form a profoundly affecting work. The depth, the sensitivity, the reaching for truth, across cultures, through so many awful wars. It's all here in this book (LARA PAWSON)
From Ukraine to Iraq, to Rwanda, Syria, West Bank, and beyond Lindsey Hilsum takes us on a global journey punctuated by wars, death and destruction, but also by verses of poetry-- sounds of muses that refused to be silent when the cannons were heard (SERHII PLOKHY)
Lindsay Hilsum’s unflinching accounts of human conflicts take us to the frontline and witness the painful devastation in Ukraine, Iraq, Rwanda, Syria and many war-torn places beyond recognition. Sharp-eyed, tender yet unsentimental, Hilsum’s prose, juxtaposed with poetry, has created a terrifying dance of death and a soaring dance of hope. It’s an unforgettable reading experience (KIT FAN)
Incredibly moving, resonant and thought-provoking. Everyone who has been affected in some way by war – and that's everyone – should read Lindsey Hilsum's I Brought the War with Me. The excellent twinning of reportage and poetry creates a space in which revealing connections are sparked. It offers solace, invites empathy, re-sensitises, and helps us to think deeply about war and its terrible effects. I know I'll return to it frequently (PRISCILLA MORRIS)
All stars
Most relevant
It’s a compelling and exceptional book – far from the stereotypical format of the foreign correspondent’s memoir, encounters of a lifetime’s reporting are matched with published poetry that encapsulates/enhances the emotions of each story. In some ways, listening to it in audio book form might not be the best way. The percussion of the hard-hitting stories one after the other, and the poetry that follows is a lot to process if you’re listening continuously. Scanning the poetry on the page might be the better way to fully absorb the words. Or hit the pause button a lot. But then you want to hear the next account. The story of the Syrian bus driver negotiating the IS checkpoints on his route, with a set of excuses for his passengers to negotiate each and every problem is surely the basis of a future movie. Coming out of it you feel a sense of awe at the ability to face such monstrous acts and report it with neutrality. And get any sleep.

A unique lens on the life of a correspondent

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