Book description

David Balderstone’s eye-witness account of the events surrounding Egyptian President Nasser’s death in 1970 and the subsequent rise to power of Anwar Sadat is interspersed with the observed but partly fictional story of the lives of local people. This is a record of Egyptian society and politics in the early 1970s, with colourful descriptions of life on the streets of Cairo and Luxor. It clearly shows the determination of the Egyptian leadership to achieve a military capacity with which to win back Sinai, and an eventual separate peace with Israel. In reflecting on the Free Officers’ Movement that brought Nasser to power in 1952 and the relative lack of politicisation of the local populace before the rise of fundamentalist Islam, the account provides an illuminating contrast to events in the Middle East today.

Reviews on Amazon UK:
‘For an understanding of the Egyptian political mood and events juxtaposed with the concerns of the man in the street following the death of Nasser this cannot be bettered! It is also interesting to compare the innocence of those times with what is happening now, the emphasis of religion and the so called Arab Spring. In some parts of the World Western democratic systems are perhaps not the answer, they have not stopped bombs going off in markets across the Arab World when 20 years ago walking late at night in Cairo, Damascus or Baghdad it was as safe as safe. David Balderstone was a well travelled, experienced and observant journalist, the story he tells will bring back memories to anyone who knew Egypt years ago.’
– Archie Walls

Buy this book from http://www.amazon.com/David-Balderstone/e/B0064I1QQE