Sandstorm

Lindsey Hilsum's account of the last days of Gaddafi is gripping, and gives all the background required to understanding what led to the revolution: especially the events surrounding the terrible deaths of inmates at Abu Salim jail in 1996.Gaddafi's rise to power is explained as are his many idosyncrasies... many of which led to bloodshed under his increasingly arbitrary rule. The final moments are described and so are the ins-and-outs of the revolution. You also find out about the antics of some of his children, and how oil money fuelled what had become little more than an eccentric (but very deadly) fiefdom.Hilsum's style is straightforward and she captures "the Arab world's most bizarre dictator" well. Her reportage from the revolution brings colour and life to the text. It is not in the gung ho style of Alex Crawford's also excellent - for different reasons - Colonel Gaddafi's Hat, it is more measured and with more background information. The books, in fact, offer a perfect counterbalance to one another.It is incredibly impressive that Hilsum produced this book so quickly after the revolution.

I was frankly very disappointed with this book as I quite admire the television news reports that Lindsey Hilsum does for Channel 4 News. The style of the book is journalistic and contains many partially verbatim reports of interviews that Hilsum conducted during and after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi of Libya in 2011. This is all very well, and provides many interesting anecdotes, but it is fractured, the interviews are disjointed and sequential interviews often relate to different periods of time. There is a lack of a coherent linear narrative that would have been more suitable for this subject matter.The book is divided into ten chapters but these are not always helpful in finding you way through the story, and in some ways they become repetitive. It is only in the last three chapters when the narrative becomes more conventional it its approach to the actual overthrow of Gaddafi and the culmination of the revolution that the book becomes easier to follow. Strangely the death of Gaddafi is treated in just a few lines despite his central role in the book.The work contains a good deal of information but perhaps little that is really new to anyone who follows the foreign news closely, and there are no insights or political comments on the nature of the NATO intervention or its future consequences. Perhaps it is too early to be writing a history book on the recent Libyan revolution.

A very interesting book on the little know history of Libya and Gaddafi. The author has done a pretty good job of presenting various aspects of the 42 years of Libya under Gaddafi which includes all the Western governments and corporations desperate to sell Libya contracts. The books reads like a story which kept me interested throughout. I enjoyed the profiles of many revolutionaries and even supporters of the Gaddafi regime. I was also surprised to find out about the role played by Qatar and UAE in the revolution, two countries which I didn't believe were big players in the region. I think the only area which remained unexplained was the kernel of the revolution, who were the masterminds and what were their vision after Gaddafi had been ousted. The last chapter touches on the Islamist agenda but not to a great extent. This makes the whole book seem like a huge newspaper article which is a common fault with journalists turned-from journalists. At least it is start as much needs to be written about this land and its history.

After working in Libya for almost 7 years and having a good relationship with many Libyans I thought I understood the country quite well. After reading this book I have a far better grasp of why the country and its people are the way they are. 42 years of madness is not easy to live through without adverse effects in every way. I have a greater degree of sympathy for the Libyans after this. The book is a gripping read and very informative. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in Libya's recent history.

Lindsay Hilsum is a good TV reporter and so as you would expect she is good at detailing the happenings in the downfall of Ghadaffi. I have no quibbles apart from the chronological order of the tellling which I can see is very difficult as the tale needs to be told from a number of different angles at different times. A worthwhile read and one I will keep to look at again later as the country moves on to better things - one hopes.

A Channel 4 TV journalist who has written a genuinely accessible overview of the revolution in this key country, compelling and insightful but also reporting of the highest kind, not sensational or evasive. Greatly strengthened by being written by a woman in a very male revolution without in any way being from a 'woman's point of view'. Rather, the author's gender helps give her account a way of being thoroughly human.

Well researched. Fantastic read. Times when I couldn't put the book down. A must read for all those who work out in Libya. Ranks alongside 'Tripoli Witness' by Rana Jawad. Better than 'Revolution' by James Fenton. Well recommend to anyone interested in trying to understand the 'Arab Spring'.

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