The chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Times and bestselling author of ‘I am Malala’ and ‘The Girl From Aleppo’ visits the South West.
Christina Lamb’s work is defined by determination and curiosity to vividly convey life in areas of danger and conflict. How else would the rest of us know about the injustice, the violence, but also the hope that can be found in those dark places?
What is the point of bearing witness to the atrocities of war? What difference can journalism make? As one of Britain’s leading foreign correspondents, Christina Lamb has never wavered from giving a voice to the unsung heroes of war, often women like the cyclists in Kabul, the Zimbabwean lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, and the famous Malala.
In this talk, Christina Lamb speaks about the defining moments of her career as an author and journalist: travelling with the Mujahidin, the resistance fighting Soviet occupation in Afghanistan during the Cold War, being in a 360 Taliban ambush, and surviving a bus bombing at an assassination attempt on Pakistan’s Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. After 38 years of reporting from the most dangerous places on earth, Christina shares why she still goes to war, asking what we can learn about humans, conflict, and resilience.
CHRISTINA LAMB
Author and Foreign Correspondent
Christina Lamb is one of Britain’s leading foreign journalists as well as a bestselling author. Her despatches with the Afghan mujaheddin fighting the Soviet Union saw her named Young Journalist of the Year at the age of 22. She has since reported everywhere from Iraq to Ukraine, Israel to Zimbabwe and been awarded Foreign Correspondent of the Year seven times as well as Europe’s top war reporting prize, the Prix Bayeux, the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from both the Society of Editors and Women in Journalism as well as the Chesney Gold Medal for promoting the understanding of war, previously awarded to Henry Kissinger and Winston Churchill.
She has always particularly focused on what war does to women, and her book Our Bodies, Their Battlefields about sexual violence in conflict was described by leading historian Antony Beevor as ‘the most powerful book’ he had ever read and recently recommended by Queen Camilla in a speech. She has written ten books including co-authoring the international bestseller I Am Malala. She is a Global envoy for UN Education Cannot Wait, Honorary Fellow of University College Oxford, on the board of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, and an Associate of the Imperial War Museum and was awarded an OBE in 2013.
