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5th March: The Constant Liberal at Cambridge Wordfest

Dr. Pam Hirsch, author of The Constant Liberal: The Life and Work of Phyllis Bottome, will be appearing at the Cambridge Wordfest on 11th April.

For more, click here.

4th March: Andrew Trimbee in Gulf Air magazine   

Andrew Trimbee, author of The Inshallah Paper, features in the March issue of Gulf Air's inflight magazine, and chronicles the birth of a legend.

‘The Gulf Daily News is Bahrain’s leading English language newspaper, but it was not always so,' the feature explains. 'Seven years before the GDN first appeared in 1978, there was the “Inshallah Paper”. Its proper title was the Gulf Weekly Mirror, but for its first editor, 28-year-old Englishman Andrew Trimbee, it was little short of a miracle when each issue appeared – hence the divinely inspired nickname. The Inshallah Paper is also the title of a new book by Trimbee about his years as a newspaperman in 1970s Bahrain.’

Buy the book here.

4th March: Kill Khalid

Kill Khalid, Paul McGeough’s fascinating account of the failed assassination of Khalid Mishal, was picked up by the Blog from the Middle East, in connection with the recent assassination of a high ranking Hamas official in Dubai.

For the full piece, click here.

And for our Chairman’s thoughts, click here.

22nd February: The Cigarette Book

The Cigarette Book has been reviewed wonderfully by the Camden New Journal, out last week.

To read the review online, click here.

12th February: Gavin James Bower in the Guardian

The Guardian listed Gavin James Bower, whose first novel Dazed & Aroused was published last year, as one of a new generation of writers influenced by Bret Easton Ellis.

Read the full post here.

10th February: Dazed & Aroused Reviewed

Gavin James Bower’s Dazed & Aroused has been reviewed by Booktrust.

Read it here.

9th February: A Few Deeds Short of a Hero Reviewed

The 2010 RAF Nurses’ Association Magazine reviewed the excellent A Few Deeds Short of a Hero by Robert Widders. Well done Robert.

You can buy the book here.

A Few Deeds is published with the support of combat stress, who will receive royalties from each sale.

8th February: Tofu Landing Reviewed

Evan Maloney’s Tofu Landing has been reviewed by Bookmunch.

The east London art scene colliding with a Pete Doherty figure (who flees a party when one of the guests falls to his death) is easy material for satire. It is to Maloney’s credit that he doesn’t take this easier route but creates a nuanced and intriguing character in Declan Twist. Declan’s uncertainty about his life keeps him tied to the Posse, while his love of art means that he sees through the pretension all around him. The witty and acerbic descriptions of clubs, youth television and nights spent getting high together (and the sex that results) are vividly told, everything rings true, it’s a compelling novel.

For the full review, click here.

1st February: Remi Kapo at the Oxford Literary Festival

Remi Kapo, author of Reap the Forgotten Harvest, will be debating at the Oxford Literary Festival.

Remi will join Laura Fish, broadcaster and author of Strange Music, and James Walvin, author of numerous books (most recently A Short History of Slavery) and co-editor of the journal Slavery and Abolition, to discuss, ‘How has Slavery Influenced Britain?’

Throughout the period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, English and African traders paid little heed to the consequences of their trafficking. The wounds inflicted by this cruel industry were deep and often unforeseen. But are the scars still showing? Have the racial stereotypes springing from the shadow of that era, and fortified by 19th century social and scientific theory, been appropriately modernised? Do we remain the heirs of a dark, inadequately examined history? Our writers probe a sensitive issue.

The debate will take part at Christ Church from 8pm. Tickets are priced at £10. The panel will be chaired by Mike Wooldridge, BBC world affairs correspondent.

For more, click here.

26th January: Evan Maloney Interviews Gavin James Bower

Tofu Landing author Evan Maloney took on Dazed & Aroused author Gavin James Bower, and there was only one winner. Quartet Books. Read the full interview here.

Quartet author’s are no strangers to nepotism. Here’s the very same Gavin James Bower reviewing James Palumbo’s TOMAS for 3:AM Magazine.

26th January: Waiting for Princess Margaret in The Lady

Susan Hill has reviewed Emma Tennant’s Waiting for Princess Margaret for The Lady, which has been revamped and is due for relaunch this week. Here’s a sneak preview before the magazine hits the shelves:

‘As a portrait of an era not entirely gone, a place, the way people had of skating through life only touching the surface, this is fascinating and at times, very touching.’

25th January: Evan Maloney in the London Word

Tofu Landing author Evan Maloney is interviewed in the London Word.

To read, click here.

22nd January: The Paper Bridge Reviewed

Monica Porter's The Paper Bridge was reviewed in the Mail on Sunday, and the review is now online here.

19th January: The Argentinian Virgin Reviewed

Jim Williams' The Argentinian Virgin has been reviewed by David Hebblethwaite, who cited the novel's 'depiction of how love might drive people to commit desperate acts' as a highlight.

For the full review, click here.

14th January: Gavin James Bower Meets Madame Arcati

Dazed & Aroused author Gavin James Bower talked to blogger du jour Madame Arcati about sex, Bret Easton Ellis and his debut novel.

To read the full interview, click here.

13th January: The Art of (Self-) Publicity

Tofu Landing author Evan Maloney penned a piece for Open Magazine on the increasing need for artists to be media savvy.

For more, click here.

8th January: Evan Maloney

The author of Tofu Landing, due out in February 2010, appeared in the London Word as well as the Guardian today, writing about art, books and love.

For more, click here and here.

5^th January: Yorick Blumenfeld in the TLS

Yorick Blumenfeld’s The Waters of Forgetfulness has been given a terrific review in the TLS. And in case you haven’t managed to get hold of a copy, here’s Terri Apter’s full review below:

The Waters of Forgetfulness is a fictional memoir of Augustan Rome, narrated by Rufus who leads two very different lives, one acknowledged and one hidden. He is a respected family man, a Roman citizen of good standing; but he also assumes the guise of the boatman Charon who inducts "visitors" wishing to commune with the dead to the Graeco-Roman conception of the Underworld. This Disneyesque theatre of death is the family business, but it is thought to serve the greater good, too, as it protects social and religious mythology. The hoax is maintained by three days of solitary confinement and hallucinatory drugs, so that most of the visitors exercise what would today be called 'biased message processing' whereby they interpret what they see according to what they believe; yet their careful displays cannot fool everyone, and approximately 30 visitors each year are identified as dangerous sceptics. As they leave the theatre, they are forced to drink "waters of forgetfulness" which will ensure that they die before spreading the contagion of doubt.

When news arrives that the poet Virgil is seeking a visit to the Underworld, special arrangements are made to enhance and develop the journey. Blumenfeld suggests that the magnificent descriptions of the descent into hell in the Aeneid obscure the poet’s knowledge that his experience was the result of a hoax. But Virgil too has motives for belief: "It is fortunate I can weave these mythical settings into my poetry," and he goes on to pursue the sacred mission entrusted to him during that visit by his father’s soul. Virgil scents the scam, yet he craves a purpose and personal glory, and so colludes with hoaxers to make his mission real. Rufus, too, is "forgetful" of his own knowledge. "Everything is becoming more unknown to me every day," he reflects, clinging to his belief in the truth of the myths at the same time he dedicates himself to deceiving others. This disconnection between knowledge and belief, Blumenfeld suggests, may be a foundation of our culture.

The Waters of Forgetfulness poses questions about how myths are constructed, and how those who may ruthlessly maintain cultural deceits are complex humans, with motives that are likely to include financial self interest, respect for family traditions, and desire for cultural domination. There are no clear heroes or villains in this intriguing and original novel; myth making can be sordid and clichéd and cruel, but it is an enduring social activity. Blumenfeld reminds us of the precarious balance between cultural belief and personal knowledge, and suggests that civilizations thrive and decline according to how well this balance is achieved.

4^th January: Emma Tennant

Emma Tennant’s Waiting For Princess Margaret has popped up not once but twice on the blogosphere in the last week.

For more, click here and here.

3^rd January: Andrew Trimbee

Andrew Trimbee, author of The Inshallah Paper, has featured in the Sunday Sun and the Northern Echo.

To read the full articles, click here and here.

Andrew’s novel was also reviewed in Maktoob.

For more, click here.

2^nd January: The Climate Caper

Climate blog ‘On Climate’ posted a piece on The Climate Caper by Garth Paltridge.

For more, click here.

27^th December: The Sixth Man

James McNeish’s The Sixth Man has made the CIA’s booklist.

For more, click here.

21^st December: Bleak Hotel

D. M. Thomas’ Bleak Hotel, chronicling how his novel The White Hotel never made it onto the silver screen, was mentioned in Vanity Fair, in connection to the tragic death of the actress Brittany Murphy.

For more, click here.

21^st December: Dazed & Aroused

Gavin James Bower’s Dazed & Aroused has been named by Bookmunch as one of its favourite debuts of 2009.

For more, click here.

20^th December: The Inshallah Paper Reviewed

Andrew Trimbee’s The Inshallah Paper has been reviewed by The National, the English speaking newspaper of the UAE.

To read the review, click here.

17^th December: Pregnant Women

Joth Shakerley’s Pregnant Women is proving quite a hit on the blogosphere.

Click here for more.

16^th December: Evan Maloney

Evan Maloney, author of Tofu Landing (Quartet, Spring 2010), featured in the New York Times today.

The author also managed to bag himself a blogger post for the Guardian.

For the NYT, click here.

And for the Guardian, click here.

15^th December: Naim Attallah in the Londoner’s Diary

Quartet Chairman Naim Attallah’s brand new blog has again featured in the Evening Standard.

For all of you that missed it, click here.

And for the Chairman’s blog, click here.

10^th December: The Inshallah Paper

Andrew Trimbee’s The Inshallah Paper featured in the Gulf Daily News.

For more, click here.

And for Quartet Chairman Naim Attallah’s post on the book, click here.

9^th December: Ian Plimer in the News

With Copenhagen taking up front pages across Europe, Ian Plimer, whose book Heaven and Earth was called ‘the bible for climate sceptics’ by the Financial Times, is in the news once again.

For the Guardian’s bit on all those hacked emails last week, click here.

For the Independent on Sunday’s take on things, click here.

And for the FT, click here.

9^th December: Bad Marriage Reviewed

John Tagholm’s Bad Marriage was reviewed by Bookmunch.

To read the review, click here.

8^th December: Christmas Style

The Cigarette Book and Simon Astaire’s And You Are…? are both causing quite the stir at the moment.

The former is in the latest Time Out’s Christmas books selection, while the latter features here.

Who said Christmas couldn’t be cool?

7^th December: Catherine Olsen on Radio America

Catherine Olsen, author of Sweet Seduction and the Third Mermaid, was on the Kathryn Raaker radio show in America.

For more and to listen, click here.

4^th December: Naim Attallah on BBC Radio 4

Quartet Chairman Naim Attallah was on Radio 4’s Last Word today, talking about William Miller.

To listen back to the show, which is available until 1^st January, click here.

2^nd December: Ian Plimer on the Front Page of the Express

Professor Ian Plimer, author of the highly controversial Heaven and Earth, was back in the headlines on Wednesday, this time on the cover of the Daily Express.

For more, click here.

29^th November: Ian Plimer in the Daily Mail

Professor Ian Plimer, author of Heaven and Earth, featured in the Daily Mail.

Click here for more.

25^th November: William Miller

The much-loved William Miller, one of the founding father’s of Quartet Books, was remembered in the Guardian today.

Click here for more.

And for Quartet Chairman Naim Attallah’s personal tribute, click here.

22^nd November: The Paper Bridge Reviewed in The Independent

The Independent reviewed Monica Porter’s The Paper Bridge, calling it a ‘fascinating book’.

To read the full review, click here.

21^st November: Joth Shakerley in The Sun

Last week’s controversial launch campaign to launch Joth Shakerley’s Pregnant Women featured in The Sun.

To read the piece, click here.

18^th November: Pregnant Women

The launch campaign for Pregnant Women started in spectacular fashion today, with a series of giant posters being unveiled in the capital.

For selected coverage, click here and here.

And for more, click here and here.

17^th November: Goose

Columbia graduate Janna Spark’s Goose features in the university’s TC Today magazine. Here’s an excerpt:

“Do you want to make a lot of money really easily?” So begins GOO$E, Janna Spark’s new novel about a topic that has perhaps never seemed more timely.

“It’s a story about money and morality, how need turns to greed and the consequences of compromised principles,” says Spark, (M.Ed,1979), who obviously had no inkling, when she began writing the book a few years ago, of what would surface in the current financial crisis. “I’m fascinated by people’s perceptions, actions and reactions, and how seemingly honest individuals can outsmart anybody.”

Spark has been a published author since the early 1990s, but GOO$E is her first novel and her first book for adult readers. Her previous books include a multi-sensory literacy program, a musical fairytale and a unique anthology to benefit children harmed by war.

In addition to writing, Spark is an educational consultant and child psychologist with a private practice in London, where she has been based for 30 years. Amongst her many varied activities, she founded and directed a summer school in Gstaad, Switzerland; is Advisor to the Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities in Haifa, Israel; and serves as a member of the TC President’s Advisory Council.

Of her time at Columbia, Spark recalls, “My professors at TC had deep humanity and humility and were excellent role models and mentors.”

Which is more than you can say for certain characters nowadays – fictional or otherwise.

17^th November: Maryam Sachs

Check out the latest issue of Tatler for a special feature on Without Saying Goodbye by Maryam Sachs.

To buy the book, click here.

16^th November: The Paper Bridge

Monica Porter’s The Paper Bridge was reviewed in the Daily Mail.

For more, click here.

14^th November: Waiting For Princess Margaret

Waiting for Princess Margaret was reviewed in the Scotsman.

To read the review of Emma Tennant’s terrific memoir, click here.

13^th November: Ian Plimer

Ian Plimer’s controversial Heaven and Earth has garnered a lot of attention since its release earlier this year, most recently on the BBC’s Today programme yesterday and in the Telegraph today.

To listen to the Today show again – Professor Plimer features around 2:52:57, give or take – click here.

And to read the Telegraph piece, click here.

11^th November: Christmas Books

Nicholas Haslam has picked not one but two Quartet titles for his Christmas wish list: Without Saying Goodbye by Maryam Sachs and Emma Tennant’s Waiting For Princess Margaret.

To read the full piece, click here.

10^th November: Ian Norrie

Legendary bookman Ian Norrie, who died in September, was remembered in the Telegraph.

To read the piece, click here.

9^th November: Maryam Sachs in the FT

Without Saying Goodbye has been reviewed by the Financial Times. The novel, by Maryam Sachs, was lauded as ‘an engaging, promising debut’.

To read the full review, click here.

And for more, check out Quartet Chairman Naim Attallah’s latest blog post here.

5^th November: Gavin James Bower

Dazed & Aroused author Gavin James Bower was interviewed by Norwegian magazine Natt & Dag. And, as if that wasn’t enough, the model-turned-author also ended up on the newly launched FLUX website.

To read the Natt & Dag interview, click here.

And for FLUX, click here.

30^th October: Andrew Trimbee in The Sun

Andrew Trimbee’s The Inshallah Paper was reviewed in The Sun last week. Here’s what Natasha Harding had to say about the book:

“This book revels a time and place that will both shock and delight.”

Buy the book here.

27^th October: Hardy Amies: The Englishman’s Suit

The Englishman’s Suit currently features on the sartorially sumptuous Dapper Kid blog.

For more, click here.

24^th October: John Tagholm Interview in the Telegraph

John Tagholm, author of Bad Marriage, was interviewed in the Telegraph for Genevieve Fox’s ‘Book Club’.

To read the full piece, click here.

24^th October: Vanessa Hannam in the Daily Mail

Vanessa Hannam featured in the Daily Mail over the weekend, talking about coping with bereavement.

For more of the A Rose in Winter author, click here.

23^rd October: Simon Astaire on Talk Radio

Simon Astaire, author of And You Are…? and Private Privilege, was on Talk Radio Europe.

To listen to the show, click here.

21^st October: Simon Astaire on BBC Radio Oxford

And You Are…? author Simon Astaire was on BBC Radio Oxford yesterday.

To listen to the show, click here.

20^th October: Alan Wall in temporel

Alan Wall, author of Sylvie’s Riddle, features in the current edition of temporel, the French literary blog.

To read the works in both French and English, click here.

19^th October: Dazed & Aroused Review

Now we’re normally quite quick on the uptake at Quartet – not to mention keen on using words that start with the letter ‘q’ – but this review from way back in August slipped through the net. So to speak.

But that’s the beauty of the internet, right?

So, to read David Hebblethwaite’s summery review of Dazed & Aroused by Gavin James Bower, as if it had just been written, click here.

Just try and ignore the fact that the weather’s taken a turn for the worse, eh…

15^th October: Simon Astaire in the Oxford Times

And You Are…? – the latest novel by Simon Astaire – was reviewed in the Oxford Times.

To read the article, click here.

13^th October: Launch for The Paper Bridge

The publication party for our new edition of Monica Porter’s The Paper Bridge, first published nearly 30 years ago and now re-issued with a new Introduction to celebrate the anniversary of the collapse of communist Europe, was held at the Hungarian Cultural Centre in Covent Garden last week.

Speeches by the Deputy Hungarian Ambassador Klara Breuer, as well as the UK’s former Ambassador to Hungary Sir Bryan Cartledge, focused on the importance of The Paper Bridge as one of the first accounts of how ordinary Hungarians lived their everyday lives with humour and tenacity during such a dark period in their country’s history.

Monica’s website, (http://monicaporter.co.uk), hosts pictures from the party and a full description of her fascinating book. As we move towards even greater integration in the European federal ‘experiment’, The Paper Bridge is essential reading for understanding of our Hungarian cousins.

For more on Monica, click here.

12^th October: Simon Astaire on BBC London

Simon Astaire – author of And You Are…? – was on Vanessa Feltz’s BBC London show on Saturday.

You can listen to the show here.

7^th October: Gavin James Bower in The Sun

Model-turned-author Gavin James Bower featured in The Sun, giving a frank insight into what happens behind the scenes in the Fashion world.

To read his ‘Confessions of a Male Model’, click here.

6^th October: Hardy Amies

Hardy Amies: The Englishman’s Suit features in this month’s Esquire.

To read the article, and for the fashion blogger Mr. Gentry’s take on the book, click here and then here.

6^th October: Bad Marriage Reviewed

David Hebblethwaite reviewed John Tagholm’s Bad Marriage.

To read the review, click here.

5^th October: In a Naked Place Selected for the Daily Mail’s October Reading Group

Shirley Eskapa’s In a Naked Place has been picked for the Mail’s ‘You’ reading group in October.

To read the full article, click here.

1^st October: Gavin James Bower Interviewed in Who’s Jack Mag

Dazed & Aroused author Gavin James Bower features in the latest issue of Who’s Jack Mag, out today.

To buy the magazine or read the interview online, click here.

22^nd September: Monica Porter in the Jewish Chronicle

Monica Porter, author of The Paper Bridge: A Return to Budapest, has written a piece for the Jewish Chronicle.

To read the full article, click here.

15^th September: Simon Astaire’s And You Are…? Reviewed

Former celebrity super agent Simon Astaire’s hilarious depiction of life behind the scenes in Hollywood has been reviewed on t5m.com.

To read the review, click here.

14^th September: George Zakhem’s Men Who Dream Can Do Reviewed

Al Hayat reviewed George Zakhem’s Men Who Dream Can Do. (The following is taken from an English translation of the review, originally published on 14^th September 2009.)

George’s Zakhem’s Memoir by Susannah Tarbush

‘At book fairs and international seminars on Arab literature, participants often lament the fact there are so few memoirs and autobiographies by Arabs available in English. In Britain and the US, memoirs are an increasingly popular sector of the book market. As well as being an account of a particular life, a memoir can deepen our understanding of particular times, places and events.

The few memoirs by Arabs that have been published in English tend to be by writers, scholars or political personalities. There are fewer by figures from the world of business. The publication of “Men Who Can Dream: A Memoir” by prominent Lebanese contractor and engineer George Zakhem is therefore to be welcomed. Zakhem’s memoir was published recently by Quartet Books, the London-based publishing company founded by Palestinian publisher and businessman Naim Attallah.

It is an appropriate time for Zakhem to look back over his career and life. It is only now that Zakhem, who is 74 this year, is planning for his retirement. His sons Marwan and Salim and his youngest brother Albert are spearheading the growth of the Zakhem business.

Zakhem has led an eventful life. From his humble beginnings in the village of Deddeh in the Al-Koura district of North Lebanon, where he was born in 1935, Zakhem and his brothers built up an engineering and contracting business that has operated in many parts of the world including the Middle East, Europe, the US and Africa. The business has been though major challenges and setbacks, as Zakhem describes, but it has grown to have an annual turnover of hundreds of millions of dollars.

At the same time, George has over the past quarter of a century been a major philanthropist in the field of Lebanese higher education. He writes: “”By the year 2005, we had contributed over $18 million to institutions of higher education in Lebanon. This is a figure I believe was only matched by the late Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.” He adds: “Although many of our countrymen have amassed great fortunes and are much wealthier than we are, they have failed to make similar contributions to promote education in our country.”

Zakhem has written the story of his life in straightforward prose, with no attempt at a flowery literary style. Contracting and engineering might be thought of as dry and factual subjects, and Zakhem gives technical and financial details of the projects he has undertaken. But he also conveys something of the excitement in bidding for new contracts, of the fierce competition to win business and of the personality clashes and feuds that are sometimes seen.

The district of origin, Al-Koura, was notable for two reasons: “First, it boasted the highest percentage of educated people in Lebanon, and second, its inhabitants produced the best olive oil in the land.”

Zakhem was born in Deddeh to parents who had experienced considerable hardship. His father Salim’s father Tannous had gone out to Brazil to find a better life for his family, only to die in an epidemic there in 1918 leaving his widow Tarfa in Lebanon with three young children.

Zakhem dedicates his book to his parents Salim and Hanneh, and when he financed the construction of a building at Balamand University named it after them. His parents were determined that their children should have the best education possible despite their modest means. His father Salim had a grocery shop and later became a trader in olives and olive oil. He frequently found it difficult to pay his children’s school fees on time.

George Zakhem still has much feeling for the Al-Koura district, and remembers its hills and olive groves, valleys and brooks, and the different types of tree. The first English he ever heard spoken was from Australian soldiers who requisitioned the upper floor of his family’s house in the Second World War.

The Zakhem family is of the Greek Orthodox faith associated with the Church of Antioch, and this religious background was a mainstay to George and a source of values. He is secular-minded and non-sectarian, but at the same time proud of the role of the Greek Orthodox “as catalysts of dialogue, as educators, scientists, doctors, and businessmen.”

George pays tribute to an outstanding educator of boys in the Koura area, George Ibrahim Abdullah who opened a school at Bishmizene, 12 kilometres from Deddeh. George and one of his brothers would walk for two hours there on Mondays with their mother and stay there with an aunt during the week. When George Ibrahim Abdullah moved and set up a school the village of Aba, George transferred there, walking for two hours from Deddeh to get there every morning.

In 1948 George began his secondary education at Tripoli College High School, founded by Ilias Milhem. When he finished there he was recommended to the American University of Beirut (AUB) and entered the new engineering school. The dean of the engineering school, Ken Weidner, “was devoted to the idea of creating an Engineering school that would serve the ambitious construction and development projects of countries located in the Middle East and Africa.”

There was one Lebanese business personality above all who was a role model and mentor to George, and that was the legendary Lebanese MP and contractor Emile Bustani, the founder of the Contracting and Trading Company (CAT). Whiles studying at AUB George had summer work experience with CAT in Qatar. He joined the company after graduation, and was sent to work on projects in Pakistan.

When Zakhem decided to leave CAT in 1962 because he did not feel he was being properly rewarded., Bustani suggested that he and Zakhem set up a company in which Bustani would be the “sleeping” partner and Zakhem the active partner.

This joint venture undertook several projects in Pakistan. Bustani was keen that it should win a contract for work on the construction of the first Atomic Centre in Rawlpinkdi. He lobbied the President of Pakistan Ayub Khan by letter, and he when Prime Minster Rashid Karami went on an official visit to Pakistan in January 1963, Bustani was among those accompanying him. Zakhem came to admire Bustani’s qualities even more. “During his visit to Pakistan, Emile exemplified the ideal Lebanese politician and the experienced international businessman.”

Bustani was expected by many to become president of Lebanon. But tragedy stuck in March 1963 when his plane crashed in Lebanon. Emile was killed together with Palestinian engineer Marwan Khartabil – who was George Zakhem’s best friend – Dr Nimir Touqan of AUB and the pilot John Ogilvi.

After Bustani’s death Zakhem decided to liquidate his partnership with CAT and to launch his own business. In early 1964 he and his brother Abdullah registered Zakhem Engineering in Beirut. The business expanded and took on projects in a number of countries. In the personal sphere, Zakhem married in 1969 Lisa Masad. She had been born in Alexandria, Egypt to parents Nicolas Masad and Rose Kadir who were both originally from Zahle.

Zakhem gives several dramatic examples of how politics sometimes disrupted business. In Iraq in 1969, the year after the Baathist revolution, Abdullah Zakhem was arrested on his way to the airport and held for 45 days. At the time the Zakhems had around 400 people working in Iraq. They sought help from the Lebanese foreign ministry and leaders of the Baath Party in Lebanon to get Abdullah released. According to George, this episode showed “we had many enemies but few friends. Some who had appeared to be close to us immediately turned their backs at the first sign of trouble.”

In July 1972 trouble came in Italy when the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for an explosion at Trieste oil, where Zakhem’s company was building oil tanks. Italian police seized a bus load of around 30 Lebanese and Palestinian welders and fitters who had been working on the project and expelled them from Italy. They later denied George and Abdullah permission to enter the country.

“A few years after the Trieste incident, the Italian government discovered the identities of the perpetrators, who of course had no connection to Zakhem Italia,” Zakhem writes. “But the damage had been done. Our work in Italy was stopped and our company closed its offices in Milan after liquidating our Italian assets.”

In 1975 George was detained by the police in Italy after travelling there on business, despite having the necessary visa. It was not until 1987 that he returned to Italy and even then he was so worried about how he would be treated by the Italian authorities that he asked his friend Dr Khalil Makkawi, then Lebanon’s ambassador to Italy, for his assistance and Makkawi met him at the airport.

Libya was an important focus of operations for the Zakhems, but serious problems arose in 1983 as a result of a row between Lebanese President Amin Gemayel and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at a summit meeting of non-aligned countries.

Abdullah Zakhem’s private jet was barred when it tried to enter Libyan airspace, and the Libyans forced the Zakhem’s company to cease operations in Libya. More than two decades later, the company has still not received payment for the construction equipment that was seized in Libya, despite a Libyan court ruling that it should be paid around $10 million.

In 1975 George Zakhem left Lebanon as a result of the civil war, and moved to London. Like many other Lebanese who left at that time, he assumed that his move abroad would be temporary. However, London has been the centre of the company’s activities ever since.

Trying to working on government reconstruction contracts in Lebanon in the 1980s provided some of the biggest frustrations of his career, for which Zakhem blames corruption, mismanagement and factionalism. His brothers disagreed with his gloomy view of the Lebanese government, and in the 1990s persuaded him to go after some fresh government work.

Zakhem executed five government projects in Lebanon, only one of which ended amicably. “The other four ended up in court, and we are awaiting the court’s judgement to this day. In the process we spent over $40 million to finance the jobs and complete them on time.” The Zakhems’ successes in other countries in effect subsidised the losses in Lebanon.

Zakhem has been very active in Lebanese higher education since the early 1980s, as a donor and fundraiser. He was intimately involved in the transformation of Beirut University College (BUC) into the Lebanese American University in 1994, and in the founding of the University of Balamand. Last year AUB announced that George and his four brothers, who are all AUB graduates, had given $3 million to establish a deanship at the AUB Faculty of Engineering and Architecture.

Some of Zakhem’s activities in higher education caused controversy: there was for example widespread opposition to his pushing for the building of a campus of BUC at Byblos. The Zakhem family donated the engineering building at the Byblos campus. In the 1980s Zakhem was keen to see a university set up in at Balamand sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Church. He proposed the idea to His Beatitude Ignatius IV, Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church for Antioch and the Orient and to fellow members of the church’s Economic and Development Advisory Board, and the new university was launched in 1987. In all, the Zakhems gave $10 to the Lebanese American University and $5 million to Balamand University.

He writes of how he was never happy over MP and publisher Ghassan Tueini’s presidency of the university. Tueini was furious when Zakhem called in 1993 for his removal, although according to Zakhem he later cooperated over finding the most suitable person to replace him. Zakhem had always favoured former foreign minister Elie Salem as president of the university, a position that Salem took over from Tueini and still holds.

To cover its losses in Lebanon, the Zakhem group has since the beginning of this century sought income from other areas. In particular, it has focused on Africa. George is especially optimistic over the potential of Ghana where the company is developing a downtown area of the capital Accra including a five-star hotel which is due to open next year.

Zakhem’s memoir gives his own perspective on the events he has been involved in, and others are likely to have their own version of history. But his memoir is a lively read, and is also a useful contribution to the social and business history of Lebanon and the wider region over the past seven decades.’

7^th September: Unperson Reviewed in the TLS

Denis Lehane’s Unperson was reviewed in the TLS at the end of last month. Here’s what reviewer George Brock had to say:

‘This sad and angry book is a first person account of the life of Denis Lehane, once a journalist, now a broken man. Until 1983 Lehane was a successful newspaper reporter who had made his name in his native Northern Ireland co-authoring a path-breaking book on Loyalist political murders. While on a Harkness fellowship in America he was invited to work for the CIA and refused. The bottom fell out of his world. He was smeared, his career fell apart, he was confined and drugged for a time in hospital and he became obsessed by trying to right the wrong that had been done to him.

Or so he writes. Even on his own account, Lehane sees conspiracies when people question his version of events, is rarely grateful to those who help him, has a history of unfortunate personal relationships and threatens people. So it is just possible that his entire account is a paranoid fantasy concocted by a man who once suffered a nervous breakdown and remains unstable. His book is not helped by a confusing sequence and an absence of evidence open to cross-checking.

Despite all this, I’d judge the thrust of the story to be right. The reader can only sympathize with Lehane’s effort, ill and poor as he now is, to leave a mark on the public record. His tragedy was to be caught on the fringes of a vicious, high-stakes intelligence war that everyone now wants to forget. He was exactly the kind of journalist useful to intelligence agencies in operations against the IRA: the British likely suggested that he be recruited. When Lehane wouldn’t play, it isn’t clear why the CIA then took the drastic step of spreading rumours which started the ruin of his career (Lehane’s self-destructive tendencies did the rest). Over-reaction to a threat to expose the failed recruitment? As the author and journalist Phillip Knightley says in his sympathetic introduction, intelligence agencies do smear people and it works. Lehane’s credibility was undermined.

The bleak best outcome would be that one day the existence of this book may prompt a conscientious historian in the CIA archives to lay out the facts of a misuse of power with terrible consequences.’

7^th September: A World According To Women Reviewed in the Telegraph

Saturday’s Telegraph included a fantastic review for A World According to Women, Jane McLoughlin’s scathing attack on unthinking females everywhere.

To read the review online, click here.

6^th September: Gavin James Bower in the Sunday Telegraph

Gavin James Bower, author of Dazed & Aroused, features in today’s Sunday Telegraph, writing about his time as a fashion model for the Stella supplement.

To read the full feature online, click here.

5^th September: Young Hitler Website Launched

Claus Hant, author of the controversial non-fiction novel Young Hitler, set for release next year, has launched a website.

For a comprehensive background on the novel and the man behind it, including excerpts and expert opinion, click here.

3^rd September: Glowing Endorsement for The Waters of Forgetfulness

Terri Apter, of Newnham College, Cambridge, had this to say of Yorick Blumenfeld’s sumptuous novel:

‘In The Waters of Forgetfulness Yorick Blumenfeld makes a new and significant contribution to recent texts about the long-standing consequences of fraud in religious and cultural beliefs. But this novel takes us far beyond the conspiracies described in The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail and The DaVinci Code. The novel poses questions about how myths are constructed, and how those who so ruthlessly maintain cultural deceits are complex humans, with motives that range from comfortable self interest to respect for family traditions. Blumenfeld exposes the all too human tendency to disconnect knowledge from belief as he shows that those who dedicate their lives to maintaining myths they know to be false nonetheless have faith in the truth of other myths, forgetting that these, too, are fabricated. There are no clear heroes or villains in this subtle novel; those who discover the machinations of deceit are not the simple honest smart rebels portrayed elsewhere; here they have political or cultural aims themselves, reasonable aims with which the reader may have sympathy. In transposing the setting from a Christian society to Augustan Rome, Blumenfeld engages anew with the question about the Ancient Romans’ relationship to their Gods and Goddesses. The result has the after-the-fact obviousness associated with a brilliant idea.’

2^nd September: Sweet Seduction in the Daily Mail

Catherine Olsen’s Sweet Seduction and the Third Mermaid featured in Richard Kay’s Daily Mail column.

To read the full article, click here – and scroll to the bottom.

27^th August: TOMAS Extract in the Guardian

There’s an extract of James Palumbo’s TOMAS in the Guardian. The explosive debut has been shortlisted for the paper’s ‘Not The Booker Prize’.

To read the extract, click here.

25^th August: TOMAS in 3:AM Magazine

James Palumbo’s TOMAS was reviewed in 3:AM Magazine, by none other than Quartet author Gavin James Bower. We know. Nepotism is rife…

You can read the review here.

24^th August: TOMAS Shortlisted for the Guardian’s ‘Not The Booker Prize’

James Palumbo’s explosive debut novel TOMAS has made the Guardian’s Booker Prize parody shortlist.

To read the latest Books Blog post, and see the full shortlist, click here.

23^rd August: A World According To Women in the Sunday Times

Sunday Times columnist Melanie McDonagh gave a very knowing nod to Jane McLoughlin’s A World According To Women, while lauding the most unlikely symbol of girl power, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

‘A World According to Women, a provocative book by Jane McLoughlin, the former Guardian women’s editor, suggests that women have pretty well inherited the earth but because we’re in thrall to a particularly emotive brand of popular culture this has resulted in an anti-rational strain in contemporary politics. In other words, women tend not to respond to argument because our brains have been collectively rotted by women’s magazines and babyish television.’

To read the full piece, click here.

21^st August: Chelsea Footprints

Chelsea Footprints, a Thirties chronicle by Angela Hughes, was reviewed in International Record Review, July/August 2009 issue. Here’s an excerpt:

‘One reads the book and is reminded that much which strikes today’s citizen as new is far from it. Promiscuity is an example ... I have mentioned only a few of the men and women whose footprints mingled with those of Herbert and Suzanne Hughes. Eyebrows may rise as one reads other entries in SH’s journal. Today’s prophets of doom may be interested in this paragraph: “At the recital the following day [December 3rd, 1932] Freddie Gaisberg of HMV told Susie and Herbert that business was very bad: the slump was making itself felt. ‘I thought you were very busy at Hayes,’ HH said. ‘Oh yes,’ Gaisberg replied, ‘making our coffins!’” Ten pages of notes are included, followed by 20 pages of short, biographical facts about many of the folks who made those footprints. It is a fascinating book.’

20^th August: A World According To Women in The Spectator

Jane McLoughlin’s A World According To Women was reviewed in The Spectator.

To read the full review, click here.

18^th August: Dazed & Aroused Reviewed on 6Music

Model-turned-author Gavin James Bower’s Dazed & Aroused was reviewed on Cerys Matthews’ 6Music show today.

You can listen again to the show here.

10^th August: Quartet Sign Young Hitler Novel

Claus Hant’s controversial novel on the early years of Adolf Hitler will be publisher by Quartet in Spring 2010. Julian Friedmann, talent agent and blogger, offers an insight into how the deal came about.

To read the post, click here.

4^th August: Kill Khalid Still Dominating the Blogosphere

Paul McGeough’s Kill Khalid: The Failed Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas featured on a Palestinian blog, posted yesterday.

To read the article, click here.

3^rd August: Dazed & Aroused Reviewed in The Independent

Gavin James Bower’s razor sharp debut Dazed & Aroused is reviewed in The Independent today as ‘The Monday Book’.

To read the review online, click here.

31^st July: Maya Angelou Praises Reap The Forgotten Harvest

Reap the Forgotten Harvest, by Remi Kapo, has received a glowing recommendation from Dr. Maya Angelou. The acclaimed poet and memoirist had this to say:

‘Reap the Forgotten Harvest can be read for it is entertainment. It also can be read for its timeliness. If we are to rid ourselves of the blight of racism and see where we are going, we need to see where we have all come from, and how we became who and what we are. This book will help us.’

31^st July: Dazed & Aroused in the Sheffield Star

Gavin James Bower’s Dazed & Aroused featured in the Sheffield Star. The young author went to university in the Steel City.

To read the full feature, click here.

31^st July: James Palumbo on BBC Radio Two

Click here to listen to James Palumbo, author of TOMAS, talking to Claudia Winkleman from last week.

Available for one day only – so hurry!

30^th July: Josef Herman Remembered Reviewed in the Jewish Chronicle

Josef Herman Remembered, a celebration of the artist’s work edited by Nini Herman, was reviewed in the Jewish Chronicle.

To read the review, click here.

30^th July: Gavin James Bower in 3:AM Magazine

Dazed & Aroused author Gavin James Bower was interviewed by Andrew Gallix, editor of 3:AM Magazine.

For the full interview, click here.

28^th July: Gavin James Bower on BBC Radio Lancashire

Northern author Gavin James Bower featured on a BBC Radio Lancashire panel show yesterday.

To listen to the show, which is available on BBC iPlayer until Tuesday 4^th August, click here.

27^th July: Dazed & Aroused Review in Bookmunch

Gavin James Bower’s Dazed & Aroused was reviewed by the literary blog Bookmunch.

For the full review, click here.

23^rd July: Kill Khalid Hits France

Paul McGeough’s controversial Kill Khalid was picked up on a French blog.

For those fluent in French, click here to read more.

21^st July: Kill Khalid in The First Post

Phillip Knightly has written yet another fantastic piece on Paul McGeough’s Kill Khalid: The Failed Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas, commenting on the British media’s apparent fear of the book and indicting British journalists for their relative silence.

For the full feature, which is on the front page, click here.

17^th July: Gavin James Bower in 3:AM

Gavin James Bower features in the latest ‘Friday I’m In Love’ in 3:AM Magazine. The author of Dazed & Aroused, which is published by Quartet Books this week, writes candidly about his big…ego.

For the article, click here.

15^th July: Jane McLoughlin on BBC Radio 4

Jane McLoughlin, author of A World According to Women, featured on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.

To listen to the discussion, featuring Jane and activist Julie Bindel, click here.

13^th July: James Palumbo in the Sunday Times and Dazed Digital

Author of TOMAS James Palumbo featured in the Sunday Times yesterday, and Dazed Digital today.

For the Times interview, click here.

And for Dazed, click here.

9^th July: Ian Plimer in the Daily Mail and The Spectator

Ian Plimer and his polemic against the climate change camp Heaven and Earth features in this month’s issue of The Spectator – even making the cover.

The title also caught Andrew Alexander’s attention in yesterday’s Daily Mail.

For the Mail piece, click here.

And for The Spectator, click here.

7^th July: Kill Khalid in the Telegraph

Paul McGeough’s Kill Khalid has been reviewed in the Telegraph. For the full review, click here.

5^th July: Palumbo in the News

James Palumbo, author of TOMAS (published by Quartet Books this month), featured in not one but two national newspapers this week – talking about how he kicked the drugs gangs out of his Ministry of Sound club before building it into a global business empire.

For his piece in the Daily Mail, click here.

And for yesterday’s Times, click here.

3^rd July 2009: Kill Khalid in Literary Review

Paul McGeough’s controversial book Kill Khalid: The Failed Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas features in the latest Literary Review.

For a PDF of the article, click here.

1^st July 2009: Kill Khalid in Khaleej Times

Below is an edited version of Philip Knightley’s recent article, taken from Dubai’s Khaleej Times. The piece is a direct response to our blog posting on Kill Khalid: The Failed Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas this week. To buy the book, click here.

ONE MAN’S VIEW
1st JULY 2009

About six months ago I read an amazing book called Kill Khalid: The Failed Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas. It was written by an Australian war correspondent, Paul McGeough, an expert on the Middle East whom I had heard of but did not know. The book had been published in the United States to ecstatic reviews.

Jon Lee Anderson, a staff writer for the New Yorker, wrote: “One of these rare beasts: an incisive insider’s history about one of the world’s most intractable conflicts and a ripping yarn to boot. Kill Khalid is a must read.” John F. Burns, London bureau chief of the New York Times, described it as “a pacey, riveting and controversial book that has all the compulsion of a Le Carre novel. [The author] leads his reader through the turbulent landscape of recent Middle Eastern history and, true to his iconoclastic form, takes few prisoners of his own”.

When I was asked for a comment on the book, I wrote: “This is that rare and most exciting books – a serious political history that reads like a fast-paced thriller.” I had no hesitation in recommending it to a British publisher, Naim Attallah, of Quartet Books.

Quartet published it in May. At first the reviews were glowing, the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement devoting long reviews to the book. But then Attallah complained to me that the British national press seemed to be avoiding the book, giving it only the merest mention. When he contacted the literary editors of major newspapers and magazines, many said that they did not plan to review it at all. He said some bookshops had said that they would not be stocking it.

How could this be? It has to do with the story the book tells. In 1997, the Israeli intelligence service Mossad tried to assassinate the Hamas leader, Khalid Mishal, in broad daylight on the streets of Amman, Jordan. Under the cover of opening a can of Coca Cola, the assassins sprayed a deadly poison into his ear.

But the Mossad agents bungled their escape, Khalid’s bodyguards managed to capture two of them and the others had to hide in the Israeli embassy. As Khalid slipped into a coma, Jordanian troops surrounded the Israeli embassy and after a complaint from a furious King Hussein of Jordan, Bill Clinton lent on the then Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to right matters.

At first Netanyahu pleaded that it was too late to reverse the effects of the poison. But when Hussein added the threat that, if Khalid died, the Mossad agents who were being held by Jordan would all be hanged, the antidote was quickly produced. Khalid survived, just, and the stage was set for his phenomenal political ascendancy.

With interviews with all the leading players, including unprecedented access to Khalid himself, McGeough reconstructs the history of Hamas through a decade of suicide bombing attacks, political infighting and increasing public support, culminating in the battle for Gaza in 2007 and into the current day’s political stalemate.

Attallah says that it is odd that both political spectra, right and left, have decided to deny the book any coverage, despite the fact that it is an objective account of what has happened and of the political situation within the Gaza enclave.

It is difficult to attribute motives to organisations for their non-action in any controversy. But it does seem to me that, in this case, the British literary establishment has a case to answer.

30^th June 2009: TOMAS Reviewed by Stephen Fry

Click here for Stephen Fry’s review of James Palumbo’s explosive debut novel TOMAS, published by Quartet Books in July 2009.

23^rd June 2009: Dazed & Aroused in 3:AM Magazine

Gavin James Bower’s razor sharp debut Dazed & Aroused is featured in 3:AM Magazine. The young author shared his ‘Top 5’ tracks from the novel.

The cult mag called Dazed & Aroused ‘a Less Than Zero for the Offbeat Generation’.

Click here for the full interview.

And for more on Gavin James Bower, click here.

16^th June 2009: Kill Khalid Takes Over the World Wide Web

Paul McGeough’s controversial Kill Khalid: The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas is receiving widespread praise from across the web. Just Google ‘Kill Khalid’ and you’ll be inundated with reviews, comment and features – but because we’re nice like that, we’ve made things easier by providing a digest of the very best below.

For the New York Post’s take on things, click here. And for a review in the Washington Post, click here.

For a featured excerpt and podcast in Vanity Fair, click here.

For an Australian perspective, click here.

And somewhat closer to home, in the Guardian, click here.

15^th June 2009: TOMAS Review in Monocle

James Palumbo’s explosive debut TOMAS is reviewed in the latest issue of Monocle. They call it “a savage satire of the highest calibre”.

For more and to get your hands on a copy of the magazine, go to the Monocle website here.

And for more on TOMAS, click here.

12^th June 2009: The Imperium of Steves Hits Australia

D.C. Pae, author of The Imperium of Steves, a dark comedy about a serial killer that’s unlike anything you’ll have ever read, is featured in an in-depth interview-cum-review here.

Check it out for more on the elusive author and her fantastic debut.

11^th May 2009: Author of By The Rivers of Babylon Scoops International Media Award

Khalid Kishtainy, author of By The Rivers of Babylon, was presented The International Media Award at a ceremony organised by the International Council for Press and Broadcasting on 11^th May for his life long contribution to Arab journalism and work for peace. Here’s what Mr. Kishtainy had to say on receiving the award:

‘This is quite a surprise for me. But as it is, I want to give a warning to the organisers. A few months ago a foreign businessman asked me on his first visit to London. He said to me, “Khalid, what is this MAT, GBT, DDT? What is this?” I said, “I don’t know. What is it? How did you come across that? What was the occasion?” He said that he was spending a night with a woman for an agreed price of £500. In the morning, he gave her her breakfast and counted the money for her. She put the money in her handbag and then turned to him and asked him for a further sum of seventy six pounds and fifty pence. “What is this for?” my friend asked her. “She replied this for MAT, GBT, DDT...something like that.” I said, “Oh she meant VAT. She was charging you VAT.” My friend asked, “And what is this?” And I said, “This is a tax in England for Value Added.” The man went pensive for a few moments, wondering what was the value added she gave him, or he gave her. I did not know him well to ask him what went on between him and the lady in question during that night to assess the matter properly. But it was certainly the first time I heard of a VAT registered prostitute. Now, you may ask, why am I relating this story to you. Certainly not just to entertain you. No. Not to give you an idea either about the scale of charges of a London prostitute. Some of the lady journalists here in this hall may really consider changing their jobs. I related this story because we, Arab journalists, are often described by our people as no more than semi-prostitutes. As such I want to give a warning to Mr. William Morris. Don’t be surprised if you receive from me tomorrow an invoice with the VAT charge on this award. I am a law abiding citizen. So should you be. Start by calling this award “The International Media Award plus VAT”.’