In a career spanning almost 40 years, journalist Lindsey Hilsum has reported on conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria, Rwanda, Kosovo and recently Ukraine, Sudan, Israel and Gaza. On every assignment she took a book of poetry with her.

In this book she presents her favourite poems alongside short accounts of her experiences, observations and memories of the horror and humanity of war and displaced people.

'We rarely read the stories written by reporters who covered the First and Second World Wars. We do, of course read the poetry,' she says. 'So I suspect, will it be today. Journalists focus on what is critical now - this village taken, that truce broken, a new atrocity by occupying forces. But poets through the ages have turned the horror of war into transcendent works of beauty and meaning. Journalism is of the moment. But poetry lasts forever.'

This is a beautifully crafted book. The poetry is extraordinary - taken from all over the world and all generations. There are some familiar verses from AE Housman, Shelley, Auden, Sassoon, Rossetti. And there are poems from ancient times (2300 BCE) to works published just five years ago. All are breathtakingly powerful and poignant.

Lindsey Hilsum's account of how the book came about, her love of poetry, her experience of war is fascinating and compelling. And her memories of particular incidents are moving, but also humorous at times, and insightful. She goes some way to explaining why it is that people like her devote their lives to reporting on the worst of us.

She writes: 'War gives your life purpose and meaning. Suddenly you believe you know what matters and what can be dismissed as unimportant. The colours are brighter and the mountains are clearer. You live in the moment. There's a wonderful camaraderie with others going through the same experience and surviving a near miss gives you a heady rush of adrenalin.'

It's a sobering book, but the language and the expression is tremendous.