Now in paperback, this is the first major assessment of Britain's role in creating the instability that still reigns in the middle-east. Using primary and secondary sources, Reid charts the lines in the sand that mark the uncertain beginnings of the region, the discovery of oil and the political wra[...]

A biography of the author's uncles, Ernest Reid, who died in 1917, an officer in the Black Watch, from wounds sustained in the Battle of Arras. This book serves partly as a very moving biography but also as a way of getting closer to the mindset of the period and the things that influenced people.[...]