The Rough-and-Tumble Adventures of a Scotch-Drinking, Skirt-Chasing, Dictator-Busting and Thoroughly Unrepentant Ambassador Stuck on the Frontline of the War Against Terror
by Craig Murray
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Oct 2007
384 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
Craig Murray is no ordinary diplomat. He enjoys a drink or three, and if it's in the company of a pretty girl, so much the better. Murray's scant regard for the rules of the game also extends to his job. When, in the first few weeks of his posting to the little-known Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan, he comes across photographs of a political dissident who has literally been boiled to death, he ignores diplomatic nicety and calls it for what it is: torture of the cruelest sort.
Murray soon discovers that this is no one-off incident: fierce abuse of those opposing the government is rife. It's not long before he is tearing around the country in his embassy Land Rover, shaking off Uzbek police tails and crashing through roadblocks to meet with dissidents and expose their persecutors. He even confronts the despotic president, Islom Karimov, face-to-face.
But Murray's bosses in London's Foreign Office, ever mindful of their senior partners in Washington, don't want to upset the applecart. Karimov is an ally in the newly announced Global War on Terror. His country is host to a big American air base. The last thing they need is a battling young diplomat stirring things up. In Craig Murray, that's exactly what they've got...
"A deluge of bureaucratic and personal information occasionally blurs the focus in this book, but Murray uses the full weight of his ambassadorship to hold a key ally of the U.S. accountable for deep-seated economic corruption and human rights abuses - including pervasive use of torture - and runs headlong into some of the fiercest contradictions in the war on terror." - PW.
"A rowdy piece of work that makes moral high-mindedness and a bacchanalian approach to life seem a great fit. " - Kirkus Reviews.
"A fearless book by a fearless man. Craig Murray tells the truth whether the 'authorities' like it or not. I salute a man of integrity." - Harold Pinter.
"This book is fantastic...[like] a very funny version of a Graham Greene novel." - Michael Winterbottom.
"The Uzbek people know only one word for Craig Murray: hero." - Mohammad Salih, Uzbek opposition leader.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Craig Murray was British ambassador at the embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from 2002 to 2005, having previously served as a diplomat in Africa and Eastern Europe. He is rector of the University of Dundee and an honorary research fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law. He lives in London with his partner, Nadira.
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