A Country of Words: The Life of Abdel Bari Atwan: A Palestinian Journey from the Refugee Camp to the Front Page [Hardcover]

A penetrating insight into the world as seen from the point of view of someone born and bred a Palestinian refugee in a Gaza camp ... Atwan s authentic voice and sharp, descriptive writing brings alive a lifetime spent deep in the travails of the Middle Eastern tragedy. --Polly Toynbee

Atwan s enthralling memoir charts his meteoric rise from shoeless urchin in the 1950s to cultured commentator whose opinion is now sought all over the world... A Country of Words combines in-depth analysis with a welcome dose of the personal ... A skilful raconteur --Tribune Magazine

A Country of Words traces [Atwan s] life in greater detail while also offering chapters on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, London, and his fascinating interviews with Osama Bin Laden and Yasser Arafat. The Middle East in London A remarkable Palestinian memoir, exceptional because of its abundance of compassion, humor and humility Electronic Intifada --Reviews

In this riveting and revealing autobiography, newspaper editor Abdel Bari Atwan recounts with humour and honesty his many extraordinary encounters, including tea with Margaret Thatcher, his weekend with Osama bin Laden, intimate meetings with Yasser Arafat, and the row between Colonel Gaddafi and the Shah of Iran that earned him his first journalistic break.

Abdel Bari Atwan was born in Gaza in 1950 and grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp. He left aged seventeen, and has since become one of the world's foremost commentators on the Middle East, for the last twenty years editing the independent Arabic daily, London-based al-Quds al-Arabi. He is the author of the acclaimed The Secret History of al-Qa'ida (Saqi).