The Wars Against Saddam: Taking the Hard Road to Baghdad [Hardcover]

By no means the first Saddam book and certainly not the last, but this is John Simpson, the BBC's World Affair's Editor, and it's a safe bet that of all the Saddam books past, present and forthcoming this will be one of the better reads. He's urbane, wears his learning lightly and writes in much the same way as he delivers copy to camera, which is to say clearly, engagingly, and with just the right number of rhetorical flourishes. There can be a problem with books about contemporary history. Sometimes they lack historical perspective. A broader context can be missing due to limited access to official documents. And there are a lot of them about. But John Simpson was there at the fall of Saddam, has the shrapnel wounds to prove it, and, like any good correspondent, can always be relied on to tell it like it was.

'You can't really argue with much that John Simpson says - there is no foreign correspondent left on TV who has a fraction of his recognition and his credibility, a fact which may be unfair on the others, but happens to be true'; That was Simon Hoggart reviewing Simpson's devastating Panorama profile of Saddam Hussein, broadcast in early November 2002. This riveting, important and timely new book is the summation of more than twenty years covering Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The War Against Saddam offers, in five acts, the full story of his rise to power and the West's relationship with Saddam throughout his dictatorship. The fifth act is yet to be played out on the world stage, but Simpson will be there to cover any war with Iraq and to report on its outcome and its consequences. It will be a major work of serious reportage and essential reading for us all.

This riveting account is the summation of more than twenty years covering Saddam Hussein's Iraq: a major work of serious reportage and essential reading for us all. 'By far the most comprehensive and readable account to date . . . Simpson remains a reporter who cares' Sunday Times 'Well-paced and well balanced . . . The Wars Against Saddam impresses not so much by its urgency as its detachment . . . the book exhibits, not bias, but a proper perspective' Boyd Tonkin, Independent 'You can't really argue with much that John Simpson says - there is no foreign correspondent left on TV who has a fraction of his recognition and his credibility, a fact which may be unfair on the others, but happens to be true' Simon Hoggart, reviewing Simpson's devastating 'Panorama' profile of Saddam Hussein, broadcast in early November 2002 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

John Simpson is the BBC's World Affairs Editor. He has twice been the Royal Television Society's Journalist of the Year and won countless other major television awards. He has written several books, including his three volumes of autobiography, Strange Places, Questionable People, A Mad World, My Masters and News from No Man's Land.