Today Syria is in desperate turmoil - an unfathomable tragedy for anyone who has followed the aspirations and dreams of a highly civilised and educated people over the past century. Written by a distinguished British-Syrian diplomat and journalist who has experience of life in the inside of the the Assad regimes, balanced by a cosmopolitan London-based perspective on the region's general history, this book delivers a rare understanding of Syria's turbulent history and the position she finds herself in today.