A Line in the Sand

‘With superb research and telling quotations, Barr has skewered the whole shabby story…The convulsion of that fateful line in the sand are still being felt today - not only in the Middle East, but throughout the world’ – Michael Binyon * The Times *‘Racy… [Barr] is right to assert that few British readers grasp the ferocity of Anglo-French antagonism in the Levant’ – Max Hastings * Sunday Times *‘One of the unexpected responses to reading this masterful study is amazement at the efforts the British and French each put into undermining each other’ * The Spectator *‘The very grubby coalface of foreign policy…I found the entire book most horribly addictive’ * Independent *‘Lively and entertaining. He has scoured the diplomatic archives and has come up with a rich hail that brings his narrative to life’ * Financial Times *‘James Barr’s history of imperial machinations in the Middle East offers a revelatory slant on the continuing crisis in that area… an outstanding piece of research and a damning take on what stoked current Middle Eastern woes’ * Metro *‘James Barr has succeeded better than any author before him in telling the fascinating story of Anglo-French rivalries in the modern Middle East… Outstanding’ – Eugene Rogan, author of ‘The Arabs: A History‘The book resembles a gripping spy thriller…an expertly researched and authoritative book that is easy to read’ * Military Times *‘Barr is particularly good at identifying and portraying officials and agents engaged in these tit-for-tat reprisals that blurred the distinction between patriotism and crime’ * Literary Review *‘Engaging and well-researched… James Barr’s lively account provides some quite astounding sketches of bluster, bickering and bravado’ * BBC History Magazine *The struggle between Britain and France for mastery of the Middle East between 1914 and the late 1940s, is analysed by James Barr in his excellent new book. It is a complex story of intrigue and skulduggery, which Barr pieces together in a deft, well-written narrative. A journalist by profession, he manages to bring the whole subject alive through a series of well-chosen details and characters’ * History Today *‘History at its meticulously researched and addictive best’ * Dublin Review of Books *

James Barr has worked in politics, at the Daily Telegraph, in the City, at the British Embassy in Paris, and is currently a visiting fellow at King’s College, London. He read modern history at Oxford and has travelled widely in the Middle East. His previous book, A Line in the Sand, is also available from Simon & Schuster. He lives with his wife and two children in south London.