By John O'Neill

The Editor [err Director-General, thanks, Ed], in the grand tradition of delegating his irresponsibilities, asked me out of filial duty to review The Great War for Civilisation by Robert Fisk which will, I'm sure, become more familiar by its cogent subtitle The Conquest of the Middle East.

I will do so gladly when I have read it which means that I may be gone for some time. Action cannot be completely deferred. The book is too important. It should in fact be recalled and republished with a red DANGER flag on the cover because it is likely to fracture the serenity of the many who choose to live in the certainty that all things Western/European and their derivatives are right and just and civilised by comparison with deranged Eastern subcultures.

I am taking the unusual step of reviewing the book twice: right now before the reading and again afterwards. Other reviewers forgo step two completely but I, unlike number one son, am completely responsible. Be glad they do not sell great writing by the kilo otherwise it would cost you more than $40. Grab the bargain at 2.928 cents per page for Allah's sake!

First, a taste of Fisk - relating his ambitions when he was first appointed as a new correspondent in the Middle East thirty years ago:

How innocent, how naive I was. Yet innocence, if we can keep it, protects a journalist's integrity. You have to fight to believe in it.

How can a reader walk away from a writer, an old and sorely experienced writer who has seen so much of man's inhumanity, and can yet write such a line and mean it. I certainly will not.