A Line in the Sand

Britain, France and the struggle that shaped the Middle East

By: James Barr

Narrated by: Peter Noble

‘The very grubby coalface of foreign policy … I found the entire book most horribly addictive’ Independent

‘One of the unexpected responses to reading this masterful study is amazement at the efforts the British and French each put into undermining the other’ Spectator

A fascinating insight into the untold story of how British-French rivalry drew the battle-lines of the modern Middle East.

In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, two men secretly agreed to divide the Middle East between them. Sir Mark Sykes was a visionary politician; François Georges-Picot a diplomat with a grudge. They drew a line in the sand from the Mediterranean to the Persian frontier, and together remade the map of the Middle East, with Britain’s 'mandates' of Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, and France's in Lebanon and Syria.

Over the next thirty years a sordid tale of violence and clandestine political manoeuvring unfolded, told here through a stellar cast of politicians, diplomats, spies and soldiers, including T. E. Lawrence, Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. Using declassified papers from the British and French archives, James Barr vividly depicts the covert, deadly war of intrigue and espionage between Britain and France to rule the Middle East, and reveals the shocking way in which the French finally got their revenge.©2011 James Barr (P)2018 Simon & Schuster, UK

Critic reviews

'With superb research and telling quotations, Barr has skewered the whole shabby story...The convulsion of that fateful line in the sand are still being felt today - not only in the Middle East, but throughout the world' (Michael Binyon)

'Racy... [Barr] is right to assert that few British readers grasp the ferocity of Anglo-French antagonism in the Levant' (Max Hastings)

Excellent performance and interesting content

The audiobook is very well narrated and the book covers a lot of ground without omitting any detail. It manages to deal with the big picture as well as the individual actors within it and is sure to leave any listener well-informed but also deeply troubled as the effects of the power struggle between Britain and France continue to reverberate to this day. But the book is also relevant to the global power struggles we see today as the same conditions - mutual distrust, sacrificing global politics to domestic concerns and the inability or unwillingness to consider the other party’s perspective - exist as much today as they did back then.

good research on the previously ignored topic

it was well researched and well written book on the subject conventional historiography somehow refused to recognize. a lot of new facts and details

Really enjoyable book

I found this book additive. Really enjoyed it. I learnt a great deal from this book.

awesome storytelling

If you're interested in that period, this is a classic that lives up to expectations

Sets out to prove a thesis

The unfolding of the case is heavily anecdotal which make for a difficult storyline to follow. Not once the book avoids, mends or entirely contradicts known historical facts in order to make the point that the shaping of the middle east in the 20th century is purely an Anglo-French power struggle and all the other factors, including the Arab nationalism and the Zionism movement are merely pawns on the board. Unfortunately this reader is not convinced.