SAQI BOOKS

The Northern Front

by Charles Glass

‘Essential reading … should in future serve as the starting-point for any proper understanding of the whole contentious business of the Iraq war.’ John Simpson

‘Witty and absorbing.’ Malise Ruthven, author of A History of the Arab Peoples

‘Always entertaining … gives a vivid and stylish picture.’ Ian Gilmour

‘Brings a unique perspective to the story.’ Spectator

‘Essential reading for those who want to understand a vital and dangerous part of the world and “its tribes”. Catholic Herald

With a death toll that continues to mount obscenely, claiming both Iraqi and American lives, the fiction that the war in Iraq is over has long been laid bare. Instead, there is a new emphasis on uncovering the chaotic complexities of the situation, from the time it began to unfold in 2002 until the present day.

Few people can cast as authoritative an eye on the meaning of it all as veteran newsman Charles Glass, who has spent over thirty years covering the Middle East and who has had unique access to the players brokering power on all sides of the Second Gulf War and its endless aftermath. In these diaries, which blend thoughtful analysis with personal experiences from the field, Glass brings to life the political machinations that led inexorably to today’s quagmire.

Insightful, angry and intimate, holding forth on everything from get-togethers with the current president of Iraq to personal money and relationship woes, Glass takes us on a tour of a war in progress from a correspondent’s-eye-view.

REVIEWS:
'Witty and absorbing ... Essential, and humbling, reading for all those pundits and commentators who think they understand what happened in Iraq.' Malise Ruthven, author of A History of the Arab Peoples 'A vivid picture not only of the events leading up to the war and the chaos of the war itself but also of some of the Iraqi emigres who were hoping to take over the government of Iraq.' Ian Gilmour 'Should be mandatory reading for all wannabe foreign correspondents.' Jonathan Randal, author of After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? - Encounters with Kurdistan. 'In the finest tradition of radical reporting - anti-war, sympathetic, compassionate and enlightening.' Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty 'A beautifully written account of the full sweep of the war and of what it was like to report on it. His diary should in future serve as the starting-point for any proper understanding of the whole contentious business of the Iraq war.' John Simpson

AUTHOR BIO:
Charles Glass was Chief Middle East Correspondent of ABC News from 1983 to 1998. In 1987, while writing his book Tribes with Flags, Hizbullah kidnapped him in Lebanon and held him until he escaped two months later. He is also the author of Money for Old Rope and The Tribes Triumphant. He writes regularly for The London Review of Books and The Independent.