Zimbabwe: Years of Hope and Despair [Hardcover]

'Barclay...is able to draw on many vivid experiences to convey the detail and atmosphere of a country that has a deadly beauty.'
-- Sunday Times, June 6th 2010

'Very, very good. Barclay's book is chilling and heartbreaking. He is as far from the diplomat of the 'old school' as can be imagined. As a man, and a writer, he is engaged and brave' Fergal Keane

Zimbabwe is a country both blessed and cursed. Arriving to work at the British Embassy in Zimbabwe, Philip Barclay found a temperate paradise and a sophisticated and charming population. But during a three-year stay in what used to be Africa's finest country, he saw it ruined by violence and grotesque economic mismanagement. Philip Barclay was at the centre of the tumultuous events of 2008. Zimbabwe's people voted against Robert Mugabe, but their desire for change was denied as vicious squads of indoctrinated youths loyal to the ageing dictator launched a campaign of murder, rape, and destruction. In the wake of such terror, the country's economy and public services collapsed, leading to widespread poverty and epidemics of diseases that Zimbabwe had not seen in living memory. This electrifying account records the violent excesses of a hated clique prepared to do anything to cling to power. It asks why the world stood by and watched as Zimbabwe burned and questions whether power-sharing between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai offers the way forward which the country needs. An honest account of a diplomat's confrontation with a brutal dictatorship, "Zimbabwe" is also a personal story of the resilience - despite their daily experience of despair and death - of Zimbabwe's people.

Philip Barclay is a British diplomat who lived in Zimbabwe between 2006 and 2009. He has written several articles about Zimbabwe for the Sunday Times and the Guardian Online. Zimbabwe is Philip Barclay's first book. He lives in London and Ankara, Turkey.