The fifth anniversary of 9/11 has inevitably seen a spate of books and television films, most notably Touchstone Productions’ outstanding The Path to 9/11 (outstanding because of its honest depiction of Islamist psychopaths), which was shown on BBC2, and Melanie Phillips’s impassioned Londonistan (Gibson Square).

While his interviews with a cast of thousands do not enable journalist Lawrence Wright substantially to increase our knowledge, as a first-rate reporter, familiar with several Third World hellholes, and a skilful writer, he succeeds brilliantly in humanising all the principal actors who came together on the morning of 9/11.