Blood and Sand

By Frank Gardner

Book Overview

On the June 6, 2004, while on assignment in Riyadh, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner and cameraman Simon Cumbers were ambushed by Islamist gunmen. Simon was killed outright. Frank was hit in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593055780
• ISBN13: 9780593055786
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Length: 383 Pages
• Weight: 1.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.1" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

BBC journalist's story of his life in the Middle East including being shot

I heard him interviewed on the BBC for his following book and decided to read this one first. He was always an adventurous, traveling guy who was drawn to the Middle East from an early age. He describes his life as a student spending time in Cairo while studying for a degree in Arabic. The chapters on his happy go lucky life as a banker mostly in the Middle East show how at home he felt there and describe his relationships with friends from all over the region as well as the ex-pats. His career change to BBC journalist in his thirties is well covered and so is the shooting of the Irish cameraman and himself in Riyadh. The chapter describing his surgeries, rehabilitation and the coming to terms of life as a paraplegic was very hard to read but doable. Hey, if he could live it I could read it. The whole book is very much about not lumping together all Muslims as terrorists or all Saudis as conservatives or all ex-pats as lightweights for that matter. For anyone who has lived abroad from their fellow countrymen it's not hard to get it but obviously not everyone does. He does a good job of making strange people in strange lands with strange customs more individual and comprehensible than you might expect. A good book for anyone asking why 'they' hate us.