Oman is one of the world’s most secretive countries,ruled with absolute authority by the Sultan. All information is strictly controlled by the State: British Prime Minister Edward Heath once said that the story of the 1970 Palace Coup and the events that followed would ‘not be told in our lifetime’.Following ten years’ residency in the country a senior member of Sultan Qaboos's Family suggested that John Beasant write a political history of Oman that would to some extent rehabilita...

Royal Dutch/Shell is a multinational behemoth. Every four seconds of every day, 1,200 cars fill their tanks with petrol on Shell forecourts, while at airports around the world civil airliners are refuelled with Shell aviation spirit every ten seconds. The company has long been regarded as a world leader and a model for other corporations. That is, until January 2004.In a truly dramatic statement, the company told an incredulous world that estimates of Shell's reserves had been inflated by ...

_THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER – NOW WITH A BRAND NEW FOREWORD exploring the fate of the middle powers in a turbulent geopolitical landscape.*'I can't imagine reading a better book this year' Daily MirrorTim Marshall's global bestseller Prisoners of Geography showed how every nation's choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Since then, the geography hasn't changed. But the world ...

Africa. The cradle of civilisation. From the dawn of human time in prehistoric Africa right through to the so-called 'Arab Spring' of 2011, Gordon Kerr offers a comprehensive introduction to the sprawling history of this enormous continent.He begins with the origins of the human race and the development of stone age technology, through ancient and medieval times and the significance of the Arab presence, the Muslim states and the trans-Saharan trade.Kerr continues with the ...

A TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEARA DAILY MAIL BEST CURRENT AFFAIRS BOOK OF THE YEARA DAILY MIRROR BEST NON-FICTION BOOKAN IRISH TIMES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARHow did Britain become the servant of the world's most powerful and corrupt men?From accepting multi-million pound tips from Russian oligarchs, to the ...

Situated at the crossroads of three continents, the Middle East has confounded the ambition of conquerors and peacemakers alike. Christianity, Judaism and Islam all had their genesis in the region but with them came not just civilization and religion, but also some of the great struggles of history. Shifting Sands: A Pocket Essential History of the Middle East makes sense of the shifting sands of Middle Eastern History, beginning with the early cultures of the area and movi...

A Financial Times Book of the Year'Jaw-dropping' Daily Express'Grimly fascinating' Financial Times'Humane, timely, accessible and well-researched' Irish TimesThe dictator who grew so rich on his country's cocoa crop that he built a 35-storey-high basilica in the jungles of the Ivory Coast. The austere, incorruptible leader who has shut Eritrea off from the world in a perman...

'A kind of epic poem, one that moves in circular fashion from passionate denunciation to intense autobiographical reflection ... should be required reading for every MP, peer, councillor, civil servant and commentator. The fury and sense of powerlessness that so many people feel at government policy beam out of every page.' The Guardian'It is not enough to read Harry's record of the struggles and hopes of a generation – we have to re-assert his pri...

A study of the life and leadership of the former Iranian prime minister and how Britain and the United States overthrew his government.On August 19, 1953, the American and British intelligence agencies launched a desperate coup in Iran against a cussed, bedridden seventy-two-year-old man. His name was Muhammad Mossadegh, and his crimes had been to flirt with communism and to nationalize his country's oil industry, which for forty years had been in British hands. To ...

A frank and honest memoir by Britain’s former ambassador to Kabul which provides a unique, high-level insight into Western policy in Afghanistan.The West’s mission in Afghanistan has never been far from the headlines. For Sherard Cowper-Coles, our former Ambassador, Britain’s role in the conflict – the vast amount of money being spent and the huge number of lives being lost – was an everyday reality.In Cables from Kabul, Cowper-Coles takes the reader on a journey through th...

The searing inside story of our broken politics from the former Cabinet minister and co-host of The Rest Is Politics.‘The most exceptional political memoir I’ve ever read’ALAN JOHNSON‘An instant classic’MARINA HYDE‘At last a politician who can write’SEBASTIAN FAULKSOver the course of a decade, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for pri...