221x142mm, 256 pages, Hardback
ISBN: 9781-917045-01-8 Price: £25.00 Available: September 2024 Not yet published - Launching September 2024
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Of Wars and Waltzes
The Splendour and Decline of the Middle East in 100 Brief Encounters By Adel Darwish A range of interviews conducted by acclaimed journalist Adel Darwish, shedding light on the lives and views of some of the iconic figures in the modern history of the Middle East.
Enjoying mezza in Gaza with PLO leader Yasser Arafat; listening in Baghdad to Saddam Hussein’s critique of The Godfather while tasting the dictator’s favourite: Johnnie Walker Black Label whiskey – a drink which played a crucial role in changing the course of history in the Gulf; sipping coffee with Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz on Alexandria corniche where he often savoured Mediterranean fish grilled by film-maker Youssef Chahine and superstar Omar Sharif; statesmen such as the late King Hussein of Jordan whose political profile eclipsed his fairy-tale romances and his bravery in disarming an assassin who fired at him; a British diplomat who became the only security for Prince Charles when his plane made an emergency landing in Bahrain in the middle of the night. These are just were some of many encounters in veteran journalist and historian Adel Darwish’s story of the 20th century Middle East.
Darwish, started covering the Levant and North Africa during the Six Day War in 1967 when the region was at its zenith of splendour as reflected in iconic locations like Alexandria, Beirut, Cairo, Casablanca and Tel Aviv, places where he encountered spies, filmmakers, intellectuals, traitors, patriots, bishops and actresses. He knew warriors and terrorists turned peace-makers, British diplomats and spies who staged ‘progressive coups’ in small sheikhdoms, iconic feminists like Nawal El-Saadawi, and her forebears. Through the course of a fascinating journalistic career, Darwish came across, befriended or interviewed performers, poets, artists, glamorous beauty queens and dancers, in decadent locations and freqently during serious events. Having promised many of them not to publish details of their roles during their lifetimes, our author now tells the story of the rise and fall of the region through 100 brief encounters with some remarkable personae who contributed positively or furnished the decline of the Middle East . |
About the Author
Adel Darwish, is a British author, historian, political commentator and a veteran journalist, parliamentarian reporter & commentator based at the Press Gallery in the Palace of Westminster. Darwish has authored five books. Darwish has worked for most Fleet Street Papers as a foreign correspondent covering Africa and the Middle East since the Six-day war in 1967 through to the late 1980s. He knew and had meetings with most leaders of the region. Although Darwish is on record for opposing giving journalists awards for doing their job, the Next Century Foundation for Peace awarded him, in 2008, the Cutting Edge Prize "for outstanding new ideas and contributions to peace and understanding via Journalism". In 2017 he accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Media Council" for his outstanding work as a journalist, covering many of the major political events of the last half a century and becoming a mentor for many aspiring young journalists. As a playwright and dramatist, Darwish has been involved in British theatre, with some of his plays performed at the Edinburgh Festival and at the Young Vic and several Fringe theatres in London during the 1970s. Most of his plays were adaptations of poems and short stories from Africa, especially from Egypt. A writer, broadcaster and commentator, Darwish continues to contribute, mostly live, to major national and international networks on a variety of subjects. His expertise on international affairs covers conflict, conflict resolution, water politics, the Middle East and Africa. |
