Jeremy Bowen, the International Editor of the BBC, has been covering the Middle East since 1989 and is uniquely placed to explain its complex past and its troubled present.

In The Making of the Modern Middle East – in part based on his acclaimed podcast, ‘Our Man in the Middle East’ – Bowen takes us on a journey across the Middle East and through its history. He meets ordinary men and women on the front line, their leaders, whether brutal or benign, and he explores the power games that have so often wreaked devastation on civilian populations as those leaders, whatever their motives, jostle for political, religious and economic control.

With his deep understanding of the political, cultural and religious differences between countries as diverse as Erdogan’s Turkey, Assad’s Syria and Netanyahu’s Israel and his long experience of covering events in the region, Bowen offers readers a gripping and invaluable guide to the modern Middle East, how it came to be and what its future might hold.

‘HEROISM UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY’ Independent
‘THE MOST COMPELLING STORY OF THE GULF WAR’ Daily Mail
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RAF Flight Lieutenants John Peters and John Nichol were shot down over enemy territory on their first mission of the Gulf War.

Their capture in the desert, half a mile from their blazing Tornado bomber, led to seven harrowing weeks of torture, confinement and interrogation.

An ordeal which brought both men close to death.

In Tornado Down, John Peters and John Nichol tell the incredible story of their part in the war against Saddam Hussein’s regime.

It is a brave and shocking and totally honest story: a story about war and its effects on the hearts and minds of men.