For the vast majority of us who, in the safety and comfort of our snug recliner chairs and cozy sofas, view news coverage of war zones from the other side of the screen, it’s so very easy to let the gravity of the reporting slip by us. It can, for some viewers, be more like watching a movie or reading a fictional novel where the hero never dies, and the bodies are stunt people who all get up and walk away when the director shouts, “Cut.”

The truth is that covering violent conflicts in hot spots like Afghanistan, Syria and other places where most of us would never venture, is very dangerous work. It is a news beat that is covered by correspondents who are fearless, resourceful, and who often require the survival instincts of a Navy Seal. For those who might still see on-site cutting-edge reporting from war zones as being the exclusive domain of male reporters, things have definitely changed. There’s a new sheriff in town, and her name is Clarissa Ward. She’s a groundbreaker and door-opener for all of those young girls who harbor distant dreams of one day becoming women who cover wars from the front lines.

Violent hot spots are the prime news beat of CNN’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward. She is that rare and special war zone reporter who goes after the perilous stories that often remain elusive to the rest of the competitive journalistic pack. When all is said and done, the word that comes to mind when watching her reports is, “brave.” For in addition to possessing finely honed reporting skills that drop the TV viewer right into the deep end of a war zone, raw courage is indeed an essential element in the mix of her reporting. Clearly Ward has an abundance of this personal attribute

Her book, “On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist,” is a chronicle of her professional quest to uncover and shine a light on the truth; a truth that is set against the hellish backdrop of war where the ammunition is live, and in its aftermath, far too many people are left dead. To read this personal memoir is to see Ward as who she is; a tough and dedicated news professional who possesses the foreign affairs expertise and intelligence of a Harvard International Relations professor (although, in the interest of accuracy, she is a Yale graduate), and who has the courage of a lion. The honesty, humanness, and credibility in the reports that she files are what set her apart from other journalists who cover the same beat. There’s a unique and compelling factor as well as a gritty resourcefulness in her reporting that comes right through the TV screen and into your living room. It is compelling, and there is also a consistency in the content of her reporting that shows viewers the up-close reality of war as it is seen through the eyes of those people who are impacted by it in a direct way.

A fair statement might be that for many of us who live on the other side of the television screen watching the array of network news channels, many reporters and anchor people don’t seem real to us. Many viewers see them as being like talking heads who often have perfect hair, flawless diction, clothing that looks like it was purchased on Rodeo Drive, and who smile at the camera with gleaming teeth that are so over-whitened that we feel as though we need sunglasses in order to make it all the way through the broadcast.

This is not the case where Clarissa Ward is concerned. She is one who is definitely not afraid to be filmed in war-torn clothing, dusty combat boots, fatigue in her eyes, or reporting from inside the military high command of the Taliban wearing the Hijab head garment that all women are required to wear in Muslim culture. In the face of this, Ward projects an on-camera persona of journalistic professionalism that is wrapped in a shimmer of classic old-world elegance that finds its way through the dusty combat boots and the dark and dreary pall of war that hangs over her coverage. In the final analysis, it is the substance in her reporting that overrides personal image and captures viewers’ attention.

What also bleeds through in this memoir is her unvarnished honesty in speaking of her personal life and her history. The American-born London-based correspondent opens her book with a candid look back at her childhood of wealth and privilege. She was an only child and characterizes it as being lonely. When asked about how she dealt with that loneliness, she says, “By creating a vivid imaginary world and watching lots of TV. Also, by becoming a chameleon, thereby ensuring that I could fit in anywhere and make friends.” She adds, “But I just would say that this loneliness wasn’t something awful. I had a great childhood, and it’s fairly typical to be lonely a bit as an only child.” With respect to fielding the question of when she fell in love with journalism, she says, “I probably really fell in love with journalism on my first trip to Baghdad in 2005. Up until that point, I was in love with the idea of journalism but it was only once I was actually out in the field, watching history in the making that I knew there was nothing in the world I would rather do.”

She also employs a vivid recollection of a scene of the horror of war when asked what outre and dangerous scenario she thinks about most frequently by offering-up, “Can I just say that I love that you used the word outre. There are so many scenes that stick in my mind that haunt me to this day. That’s a big part of why I wrote the book. On a trip to Syria, we were filming in a town called Ariha when fighter jets swooped in and bombed the local market. It was a horrific and chaotic scene and later on when I was looking at the footage, I noticed some people draping a coat over a woman who had been killed to cover her legs which were exposed. It was such an impotent gesture to protect her modesty and I found it profoundly moving.”

With “On All Fronts,” Clarissa Ward has written a gripping memoir that captures her ground zero reporting from places like Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Afghanistan, and also Yemen while she was pregnant. It is a narrative that captures the daunting challenges, the minute-to-minute intensity, and the nerve-rattling fear that comes with covering the nightmare of war. Her book takes war off of the battlefield and brings it right into the heart and mind of the reader in a way that is both graphic and chilling. As mentioned earlier, when all is said and done, this book is a reflection of one woman’s intrepid and relentless mission to paint a picture of the terrifying face of global conflict and the brutal reality of the direct impact that it has on people who are swept up in its violence. It is a book that I found to be a compelling and honest telling of how one woman brings a gripping sense of urgency and purpose to what she does. It is crafted in a way that has the reader feeling all of the emotional angst and fear that Ward has felt in reporting from the center of the global conflict arena. Again, when reading Ward’s book, as well as when watching her reporting from war zones, the one word for her that hangs in my mind is “brave.” In writing this book, Ward has stepped outside of her traditional comfort zone to chronicle a first-hand account of reporting from some of the most dangerous places in the world. She has also carried a brightly lit torch for journalistic gender equality. Her story is one that needs to be told by the one who has witnessed it from within the arena.

Paul Collins is a freelance writer from Southborough, Massachusetts.