‘We are lucky to have Jan Morris, and her gift of transporting us to other realms.’ Salley Vickers

The Hashemites are the oldest, proudest, most romantic and most tragic family of Greater Arabia. When the Arabs revolted against their Ottoman overlords, Hashemite fortunes became inseparably linked with those of Britain. The Hashemite Kings traces the strange history of this relationship, from its beginnings in the conspiracy and desert warfare, through the great days of the Hashemite Kingdoms to the assassinations and horrors of Baghdad in 1958. This dramatic story is shaped by the conflicting forces and ideas that govern the politics and passions of the Middle East. Colourful figures move through it - T. E. Lawrence, Ibn Suad, Glubb Pasha, Nasser - but the narrative is dominated by the Hashemite Kings themselves and told with Jan Morris’s customary verve, panache and intelligence.