The Northern Frontby Charles Glass 
The Northern Front is an eyewitness account of the Iraqi opposition's preparations for the American invasion, the Kurdish planning in northern Iraq and the early stages of the war when some of the opposition moved to the south. Order a copy through Al Saqi Books
The Tribes Triumphantby Charles Glass 
The Tribes Triumphant completes the story of Charles Glass' earlier Middle East adventure, Tribes With Flags, after his kidnapping by Hizballah in Lebanon.
Get your copy through: Amazon (UK)
Tribes With Flagsby Charles Glass 
Get your copy through: Amazon (UK)Amazon (US)
Money For Old Ropeby Charles Glass 
Get your copy through: Amazon (UK)Amazon (US)
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The Northern Front
by Charles Glass
 'Essential reading' John Simpson
This is the Iraq war as it really started, amid lies, confusion and profound distrust between the United States and its Iraqi allies. Charles Glass, who first covered the Kurds in 1974 and was in Iraq for their failed rebellion in 1991, depicts the tense epoch that sowed the seeds of America's inevitable failure there.
The Northern Front is the dramatic eyewitness account of the machinations of Iraqi leaders - Ahmad Chalabi, Abdel Aziz Hakim, Massoud Barzani and Jelal Talabani - to control the country before their opponents seized the initiative. Glass recounts what went wrong when the US, with Britain in tow, imposed its will on a people unlikely to accept foreign designs for their future. He indicts international media conglomerates that failed to tell the truth when public debate could have prevented the deaths and destruction that came with war.
'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 emigrés 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
Order a copy through Al Saqi Books
The Tribes Triumphant
by Charles Glass
 This is a powerful and insightful narrative of a journey - once violently interrupted and here resumed - through one of the most compelling regions on earth.
In the late 1980s, Charles Glass set out on a literary and spiritual ramble from Alexandretta in southern Turkey for Aqaba, the first Turkish garrison conquered in 1917 by T.E. Lawrence and the tribal irregulars of the Arab revolt. He never reached his destination: his journey came to a brutal halt when he was kidnapped and held hostage for three months, a story told in his previous book, "Tribes with Flags".
Now he reverses the journey, marching north along the path of the Levant's last successful invasion, by the Arabs of the Hejaz and Britain in 1917, since which time the region has been divided into Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. He traverses the Jordanian desert to the Iraqi border with Bedouin guides, explores modern Israel and revisits the scene of his captivity, confronting the men who kidnapped him. He visits the Israeli settlements and the Arab towns on whose land the settlements were constructed; he speaks to Israeli conscripts and Palestinian demonstrators, to old family chieftains and the Israeli Sabra aristocracy, to priests, rabbis and mullahs, politicians and assassins, torturers and tortured. Glass believes that the only way to understand this complex region of the world, which so many different peoples desire to possess so intensely, it is to walk its ancient paths, listen to its people, explore its ruins, eat its food and examine its manuscripts. The result is an exceptionally interesting book, whose beautifully lucid prose and sophisticated grasp of the interpenetration of past and future compel one's delighted attention at all times.
Reviews
Daily Mail
'...the most absorbing passages...trace Glass's progress through Israel and the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza...'
Sunday Times
'fascinating...intriguing...Glass is skilled at bringing people alive...an important book.'
Literary Review
'...anyone who is interested in the continuing agony of the Middle East should read this book.'
The Spectator
'Charles Glass reads like Taki with an explosives belt...'
Get your copy through:
Amazon (UK)
Tribes with flags
Tribes With Flags is a chronicle of Glass' journey from the southern Turkish coast to Lebanon, and includes the 62 days he was held captive by pro-Iranian kidnappers in Beirut.
Money for old rope
Disorderly compositions on the Mideast, Balkans, America and the rest of the world.
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