Christina Lamb

Christina Lamb OBE (born 15 May 1965) is a British journalist and author.

She is the chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Times.

Lamb has won eighteen major awards including five British Press Awards and the European Prix Bayeux-Calvados for war correspondents.

In 1988, Lamb was awarded Young Journalist of the Year for her coverage of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

As a journalist, Lamb travelled with the Mujahidin fighting the Soviet occupation, spending the next two years living in Peshawar.

She has reported on Pakistan and Afghanistan for more than three decades.

Lamb has been based in Islamabad and Rio de Janeiro for the Financial Times and Johannesburg and Washington D.C. for The Sunday Times.

She has covered wars from Iraq to Libya, Angola to Syria; repression from Eritrea to Zimbabwe; and journeyed to the far reaches of the Amazon to visit remote tribes.

She pays particular attention to issues such as the girls abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria, Yazidi sex slaves in Iraq, and the plight of Afghan women.

In November 2001, Lamb was deported from Pakistan after uncovering evidence of a covert operation by rogue elements in the ISI, Pakistan's military intelligence service, to smuggle arms to the Taliban.

She inspired the character Esther in the novel The Zahir (2005) written by Paulo Coelho.

In 2006, she narrowly escaped with her life when caught in a Taliban ambush of British troops in Helmand.

She was on Benazir Bhutto's bus when it was blown up in October 2007.

I Am Malala, an account of the life of main author Malala Yousafzai, has been translated into 40 languages, and has sold close to two million copies worldwide.

In 2009, Lamb's portrait was on display in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

A photograph of her by Francesco Guidicini is in the Photographs Collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

She is an Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Global Fellow for the Wilson Centre for International Affairs in Washington D.C. In 2013 she was appointed an OBE by the Queen for services to journalism.

She has written ten books including The Africa House and I Am Malala, co-written with Malala Yousafzai, which was named Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards 2013.

Lamb was educated at Nonsuch High School for Girls, Cheam, and graduated with a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Her book Nujeen: One Girl's Incredible Journey from War-torn Syria in a Wheelchair co-written with Nujeen Mustafa, was published by William Collins (London) in September 2016 and was translated in nine languages.

Her first play Drones, Baby, Drones with Ron Hutchison was performed at London's Arcola Theatre in 2016.

Lamb is a member of the international board of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) and is a Patron of the UK-registered charity Afghan Connection.

In 2017, she was the first female former undergraduate of University College, Oxford, to be elected an Honorary Fellow.

The Fellowship was awarded in recognition of "her courageous, vivid and critically important journalism, as well as for her support of the College".

In April 2021, she wrote an article in The Sunday Times covering Prince Philip's funeral in which she stated "Prince Philip was the longest serving royal consort in British history – an often crotchety figure, offending people with gaffes about slitty eyes, even if secretly we rather enjoyed them".

In response to calls for a retraction of the article on the grounds that it was "trivialising racism", Sunday Times editor Emma Tucker apologised “for the offence caused”, stating that Lamb "never intended to make light of his remark in any way".

In November 2018, Lamb received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Dundee.

The book Nujeen inspired a five-movement cantata Everyday Wonders: The Girl from Aleppo written by Kevin Crossley-Holland (text) and Cecilia McDowall (music) first performed by The National Children's Choir of Great Britain in Birmingham Town Hall on 10 August 2018.

Lamb's book Our Bodies, Their Battlefield was published by William Collins (London) in March 2020 and by Scribner (New York) in September 2020 and was translated into 14 languages.

Her latest book The Prince Rupert Hotel for the Homeless: A True Story of Love and Compassion Amid a Pandemic was published by William Collins (London) in June 2022.