The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by James Fergusson

The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by James Fergusson

The Horn of Africa is the most alarming and least known of all the fronts in the seemingly endless war on terror. And in Somalia, where James Fergusson fearlessly dares to tread, the soldiers of Al-Shabaab fight a guerrilla war with the firm backing of Al Qaida, as well as shadowy links to the pirates who patrol the Somalian coast. Now for the first time, James gets to the heart of Somalia's issues. Who are Al Shabaab? What do they want? And how much of a threat do they pose to their home nation and to the wider world? Informative, compassionate and often deeply shocking, the answers to these questions will change the way you see the world around you.

"One of the best narratives of discovery I have read for yearsThe sense of place is acute, the characters and landscapes vivid ... rivals Ryszard Kapuscinski and Robert Byron at their best." -- Robert Fox Evening Standard "Fergusson has a talent for shedding light in dark places. While most reporters have opted to stay away, Fergusson has risked his life to cover the ground and, an even greater achievement, succeeded in making the Somali mess understandable and relevant. It is this insight, alongside his harrowing account of life in the grief zone that gives Fergusson's book its power." -- Anthony Sattin Observer "Essential reading for those who seek to counter the menace. With ingenuity and no little courage he has travelled far and wide, within Somalia and among the Somali diaspora in Britain and America, delving into the soul of a ravaged community." The Economist "What [Fergusson] has done, with heroic tenacity and no little courage, is to spend much of the last two years wandering from one end of the country to the other, interviewing politicians and presidents, fighters and pirates, foreign advisers and security guards, and above all scores of ordinary Somalis, whose lives have been destroyed by 20 years of carnage and whose tales he eloquently recounts. An elegant writer, with a scholarly understanding of history, he brings to terrible light the catastrophe that is Somalia." -- Caroline Moorehead The Spectator "If you meet James Fergusson on your travels, look out, you are most definitely in the wrong place. The writer has earned something of a reputation as a specialist on the dark side of the troubled world in which we live. From the Balkans to Afghanistan and the modern-day hell that is sub-Saharan Africa, the adventurous journalist and best-selling author has put his life on the line to become a global authority on Al Qaeda, the Taliban, boy soldiers in Somalia - and the worst aspects of human behaviour in the most inhospitable and dangerous regions." -- Jim McBeth Daily Mail

James Fergusson is a freelance journalist and foreign correspondent who has written for many publications including the Independent, The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and The Economist. From 1997 he reported from Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, covering that city's fall to the Taliban. In 1998 he became the first western journalist in more than two years to interview the fugitive warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. His first book, Kandahar Cockney, told the story of Mir, his Pashtun fixer-interpreter whom he befriended and helped gain political asylum in London. From 1999 to 2001 he worked in Sarajevo as a press spokesman for OHR, the organisation charged with implementing the Dayton, Ohio peace accord that ended Bosnia's savage civil war in 1995. He has also written A Million Bullets (voted Military Book of the Year by the British Army in 2008) and Taliban.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780593068366
ISBN 10	059306836X
Title	The Most Dangerous Place on Earth
Author	James Fergusson
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Transworld Publishers Ltd
Year published	2013-01-17
Number of pages	416
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable