Showing Battle in Iraq: Letters and Diaries of the First World War by Josephine Hammond

This moving and unusual story of a British engineer who becomes caught up in the horrifying events of the First World War vividly illuminates life - and death - on the Mesopotamian Front. At the outbreak of War, William Reed had recently arrived in the region to work as a marine engineer. By the time fighting ceased in 1918, not only his own life but the whole course of the history of the Middle East had been transformed. In this gripping history of Iraq during the First World War, Josephine Hammond skilfully weaves together her grandfather's diaries, placing his personal adventures against the backdrop of the unfolding drama of war. Battle in Iraq offers an invaluable record of events in Iraq during the First World War as well as sensitively drawing out the unavoidable parallels with the contemporary conflict and the long-term consequences of international interference in the region.