Jen Stout
Jen Stout is a correspondent, writer and radio producer from Shetland. A former BBC Scotland journalist, she left Russia at the outbreak of the invasion and moved to Romania and then Ukraine, covering the war as a freelancer. She has written regularly for the Sunday Post, London Review of Books, and most recently, New Humanist and Prospect. Her radio work includes From Our Own Correspondent, Any Questions (Radio 4), and BBC World Service.
[Photo credit: Andrew Cawley]
Jen is represented at Jenny Brown Associates by Jenny. For all enquiries contact jenny@jennybrownassociates.com
Jen’s website: www.jenstout.net
Books by Jen
Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Cost of Russia’s War
Polygon, 2nd May 2024
BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
Winner of the Saltire Society First Book of the Year Award
When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, millions of lives changed in an instant. Millions of people were suddenly on the move. In this great flow of people was a reporter from Shetland. Jen Stout left Moscow abruptly, ending up on a border post in southeast Romania, from where she began to cover the human cost of Russian aggression. Her first-hand, vivid reporting as she travelled alone, hauling around body armour, brought the war to audiences back home, as she reported from front lines and cities across Ukraine. Stories from the night trains, birthday parties, military hospitals and bunkers: stories from the ground, from a writer with a deep sense of empathy, always seeking to understand the bigger picture, the big questions of identity, history, hopes and fears in this war in Europe.
Praise for Night Train to Odesa
Night Train to Odesa is unlike any other book you’ll read on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Her reporting is caring and immediate and this account is honest, intelligent, and visceral; it is independent reporting at its finest
– Quentin Sommerville
Jam-packed with vivid insight and empathy, journalism that’s full of heart
– Paraic O’Brien
A celebration of Ukraine and a lament for it. This extraordinary book may have been written in compassion and anger, but the note that rings out is love
– Peter Ross
Night Train to Odesa is a thrilling read. Rich in reportage and infused with a deep knowledge of Ukraine, it is a masterful book from one of the best young journalists in Britain
– David Patrikarakos
Jen Stout’s heart-seizing account of Ukraine at war brings us that nation’s living presence like no other book
– Neal Ascherson
Jen Stout’s great achievement is to tell the stories of ordinary people in extraordinarily difficult and dangerous circumstances. Night Train to Odesa is by turns sad and inspiring – and unfailingly fascinating
– James Rodgers
In Night Train to Odesa Jen Stout connects us intimately to the story of a nation rising in defiance. She weaves deep sympathy for the human struggle with a layered understanding of history, politics, and the complex loyalties of a society under threat
– Angus Bancroft