On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist - Hardcover

Ward, Clarissa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525561471 ISBN 13: 9780525561477

Publisher: Penguin Press, 2020

Synopsis

“On All Fronts takes the reader on a riveting journey of storytelling. . . From Russia to China to Syria, [she] navigate[s] the most intense of human experiences while finding the tools to stay emotional.”—Lynsey Addario, author of It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War

The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Egypt, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward’s singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism.

Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and was soon on assignment all over the globe. But nowhere does Ward make her mark more than in war-torn Syria, which she has covered extensively with courage and compassion. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward has covered Bashar al-Assad’s reign of terror without fear. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and had a son. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective.

On All Fronts is the unforgettable storyof one extraordinary journalist—and of a changing world.

About this title

About the Author:

Clarissa Ward is CNN's chief international correspondent. In her fifteen-year career spanning Fox, CBS, and ABC, Ward has reported from front lines across the world. She has won five Emmy Awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, two Edward R. Murrow Awards for distinguished journalism, honors from the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association, the 2016 David Kaplan Award from the Overseas Press Club, and the Excellence in International Reporting Award from the International Center for Journalists. She graduated with distinction from Yale University, and in 2013 received an honorary doctor of letters degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. She lives in London.

Review:

 “Ward details her often harrowing career in this page-turning memoir...Readers will come away with at least a basic understanding of multiple international conflicts. This is a wonderful addition to the list of recent titles about women working in war-torn lands.”—Booklist

“Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, recounts her life in journalism in this insightful memoir...She details her often harrowing experiences that eventually took a toll on her physical and mental well-being...But it’s the connections she made with the civilians that really tell the story of these war-torn regions and demonstrate an empathy that makes Ward’s work so accessible...Ward surprises in this affecting insider view of international reporting.” —Publishers Weekly

“On All Fronts takes the reader on a riveting journey of storytelling as Ward crisscrosses the globe in a relentless quest to become the acclaimed Chief International Correspondent she is today. From Russia to China to Syria, the reader watches her navigate the most intense of human experiences while finding the tools to stay emotional.”—Lynsey Addario, author of It’s What I Do

"War correspondents have long been caricatured as vain figures of parachutist self-glory. Clarissa Ward, for all of her onscreen unflappability, has risked this investigative memoir to reveal herself as a reporter of rare modesty in her courage, rare empathy in her diligence, and rare reflection in her daring. This is a poignant and vigorous self-portrait of a journalist graced and burdened with a supreme sense of duty." —Gideon Lewis Kraus, author of A Sense of Direction

“On All Fronts is funny, fascinating, heart-breaking and heroic. Clarissa Ward doesn’t just take us to the front lines of the world’s most dangerous places, revealing the pain and pleasure of being a foreign correspondent, she gives us a startling, and often hilarious look, at her own unconventional, almost unimaginable childhood.  How did a continent-hopping Eloise, who was banished at ten to a dismal British boarding school, wind up in Beijing as a stand-in for Uma Thurman on a Quentin Tarantino film, and then break into the news business and become one of the great foreign correspondents of our time? Read on... Ward has an extraordinary tale to tell.” —Anderson Cooper, author of Dispatches from the Edge

“An honest, candid portrayal of the making of a journalist and the stories behind getting the story. With great empathy, Ward shows us what her viewers don’t see—the logistical, physical and emotional challenges of going to the toughest places—and the toll it takes. A timely reminder of the importance of bearing witness, and why there is no substitute for gutsy on-the-ground journalism.”—Rania Abouzeid, author of No Turning Back. Life, Loss, And Hope In Wartime Syria

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Press
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 0525561471
• ISBN 13: 9780525561477
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336