'Elegant, erudite, ambitious, inventive - a remarkable blend of research, imagination and first-hand experience.' Rory Stewart 'A sweeping and superbly written epic' Wall Street Journal 'A work of great ambition... an account that is informed, filled with insights and a cracking read too.' Peter Frankopan Iraq is where civilisation was born, where East and West have mixed and clashed since long before Alexander, and it was here by the waters of Babylon where Judaism was born and the Sunni-Shia schism took its bloody shape. Inspired by extensive reporting from the region and a decade delving deep into its history, Land Between the Rivers chronicles Iraq's uniquely central role on the global stage throughout the past five millennia. We begin the story with ancient Sumer and Gilgamesh building the walls of Uruk ('Iraq') to make a great name for himself at the edge of historical time. We end it in 1958, as the last royal family of Iraq is slaughtered on the steps of a small palace in