AT a time when print media budgets continue to be squeezed and detailed coverage of foreign affairs is at a premium, you deserves great credit for your use of David Pratt's contributions from the Middle East.

Repeatedly – and presumably at significant risk to himself – he travels to the heart of the story in war-ravaged localities in and around the Syrian fronts. His report from Kobane ("It's time to honour the courage and sacrifice of the Rojava Revolution", The Herald, May 18) was typically compelling, poignant and revealing but – perhaps most significantly – it also expressed a degree of optimism, rare in the wider coverage of the combat zone.

His account of the Kobane's Women's Congress and its stand against what he calls "the reactionary, hierarchical, misogynist, violent and vehemently anti-democratic diktats espoused by the jihadists of IS" was heartening, in the context of an otherwise terribly bleak landscape.

For the avoidance of doubt, I have never met Mr Pratt but, should I ever make his acquaintance, I will be glad to shake his hand in recognition of a very fine professional and one of the best reasons to buy and read The Herald.

Roderick Forsyth,

35 Saltoun Street,

Glasgow.