James Fergusson
James Fergusson started out in journalism in 1989 on The Independent. He has written for many publications since, covering current affairs in Europe, North and East Africa, the Far East, the Caribbean and, especially, Central Asia and Afghanistan. For three years he was also the political features editor of Robert Maxwell’s ill-fated newspaper, The European.
From 1998 to 2000 he worked in Sarajevo as a press spokesman for the Office of the High Representative, the body charged with implementing the Dayton Peace Accord that ended Bosnia’s civil war in 1995. This was followed by a spell at Hakluyt & Co, the London-based corporate intelligence firm.
His first book, Kandahar Cockney (2004), was a Radio 4 Book of the Week, and told the story of Mir, his Afghan fixer/interpreter who he helped gain political asylum in London.
His second, The Vitamin Murders (2007), concerned the mysterious death of Sir Jack Drummond, Britain’s top government food scientist during World War Two. It was shortlisted for the the André Simon Award for gastronomic literature.
A Million Bullets (2008), about Nato’s campaign in southern Afghanistan, was the British Army’s Military Book of the Year, and became required reading on many Staff College courses This was followed by Taliban (2010), an argument for a negotiated settlement to the Afghan war.
In 2013 came The World’s Most Dangerous Place, which deals with Somalia and its diaspora, and the security threat posed to the West by the Al Qaida affiliate, Al Shabaab. It was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and Paddy Power Political Book Awards International Affairs Book of the Year.
There followed in 2017 Al Britannia, My Country, a wide-ranging survey of British Islam which was shortlisted for the British Academy Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding. His latest book, In Search of the River Jordan (2023), deals with the water politics of Israel-Palestine.
He lives in Edinburgh with his four children.
A Million Bullets (2008), about Nato’s campaign in southern Afghanistan, was the British Army’s Military Book of the Year, and became required reading on many Staff College courses This was followed by Taliban (2010), an argument for a negotiated settlement to the Afghan war.
In 2013 came The World’s Most Dangerous Place, which deals with Somalia and its diaspora, and the security threat posed to the West by the Al Qaida affiliate, Al Shabaab. It was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize and Paddy Power Political Book Awards International Affairs Book of the Year.
There followed in 2017 Al Britannia, My Country, a wide-ranging survey of British Islam which was shortlisted for the British Academy Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding. His latest book, In Search of the River Jordan (2023), deals with the water politics of Israel-Palestine.
He lives in Edinburgh with his four children.