The Correspondent

In an era when wars are intractable and dispiriting to follow, there are increasing dangers for the relatively small band of foreign correspondents who cover them. The dedication of such reporters can be hard to fathom, as year after year they bear witness in the most violent corners of the globe. Somehow, they override their own fears to function through an unimaginable string of conflicts; many will cover a dozen or so throughout a career, some well over twenty. It’s a unique occupation where the stress is brutal, the casualties high. Inner scars can develop from seeing so much mass suffering while ­manoeuvring around the possibility of being killed, wounded, imprisoned, or kidnapped oneself. But if reporters don’t pry into what are usually other people’s struggles, how can readers and viewers penetrate such darkness?

War reporting has long been dominated by men, yet some of the most determined journalists have been women, who have had to break through sexist...