The sewing circles of Herat - Christina Lamb

Ten years ago, Christina Lamb reported on the war the Afghan people were fighting against the Soviet Union. Now, back in Afghanistan, she has written an extraordinary memoir of her love affair with the country and its people.

Long haunted by her experiences in Afghanistan, Lamb returned there after last year's attack on the World Trade Centre to find out what had become of the people and places that had marked her life as a young graduate.This time seeing the land through the eyes of a mother and experienced foreign correspondent, Lamb's journey brings her in touch with the people no one else is writing about: the abandoned victims of almost a quarter century of war.

'Of all books about Afghanistan, Christina Lamb's is the most revealing and rewardinga personal, perceptive and moving account of bravery in the face of staggering difficulties.' Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times

'As an account of how Afghanistan got into its present state, and of the making of the grotesque regime of the Taliban, this book could not possibly be bettered. Brilliant.' Matthew Leeming, Spectator

'Lamb's book combines a love of Afghanistan with a fearless search for the human stories behind the past twenty-three years of warHer book is not only a necessary education for the Western reader in the political warring that generated the torture, murder and poverty, but also a stirring lament for the country of ruins that was once better known for its poetry and mosques.' James Hopkin, The Times