Adam LeBor
Divided City
Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956–78
By Kai Bird
Simon & Schuster 425pp £17.99 order from our bookshop
All borders are arbitrary, but those carving up the fractious nations of the Middle East seem the most capricious of all. Consider, for example, the shape of Jordan. The country is composed of a long stretch of territory, the western side of which runs alongside the river Jordan; to the east, a long chunk of land lurches upwards, towards Iraq, while another points down towards Saudi Arabia. The story goes that Winston Churchill delineated the new state’s territories after a long and rather liquid lunch and hiccuped as he drew the necessary lines on the map. In fact, strategic considerations were important: the long stretch of land reaching to Iraq helped ensure British control over the vital air corridor to India.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
While you're waiting for the March issue of Literary Review to pop through your letterbox, have another read of February's cover piece: Richard Davenport-Hines on the stormy letters Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick wrote to one another.
http://ow.ly/iHKh50ywe1x
What's the worth of being zen when the icecaps are melting and populism looms? The world's leading thinkers including @ronpurser will assess the 'mindfulness' craze at the world's largest philosophy and music festival, @HTLGIFestival, this May. Learn more: http://ow.ly/STu650ywARQ
'Feminists have been caricatured so often that it’s worth recalling the many obstacles placed in the path of women campaigning for equal rights.'
@polblonde on @helenlewis's new book about difficult women throughout history.
http://ow.ly/Is9c50ywe7G