''Fascinating'' Guardian, ''Book of the Day''''A truly masterly book... A tour de force that will be read for a very long time.'' Peter HennessySelected by the New Statesman as an essential read for 2022Britain shaped the modern Middle East through the lines that it drew in the sand after the First World War and through the League of Nations mandates over the fledgling states that followedLess than forty years later, the Suez crisis dealt a fatal blow to Britain''s standing in the Middle East and is often represented as the final throes of British imperialism. However, as this insightful and compelling new book reveals, successive prime ministers have all sought to extend British influence in the Middle East and their actions have often led to a disastrous outcome.While Anthony Eden and Tony Blair are the two most prominent examples of prime ministers whose reputations have been ruined by their interventions in the region, they were not alone in taking significant risks in deploying Br