Tariq Ali is a writer and filmmaker. He has written more than a dozen books on world history and politics—including Pirates of the Caribbean, Bush in Babylon, The Clash of Fundamentalisms and The Obama Syndrome—as well as five novels in his Islam Quintet series and scripts for the stage and screen. He is an editor of the New Left Review and lives in London.

Preface: Being in the World
Chronology

Introduction: Spy Cops – On Being Spied On for Fifty Years

BOOK I: THE END OF THE CENTURY
Part 1: Before the Fall
1. Southall 1979
2. The Thatcher Consensus
3. Farewell to the Fourth
4. Off to India
5. CLR
6. ‘We Have an Editor!’
7. Bandung File
8. Private Eye
9. Russia
10. Moscow Gold
11. Disrupting Heavenly Peace

Part 2: Friends and Comrades
12. Jarman
13. Ho Chi Minh
14. At M-K’s
15. Gott and the Guardian
16. Ernest Mandel
17. Saving the Review
18. Collateral Damage
19. Art of Spying
20. Renewals

BOOK II: A FAMILY INTERLUDE
The ‘Noble and Warlike’ Khattars of Wah
Family Origins
Family Life
A Family in Jeopardy
My Father
Aftermath

BOOK III: THE PROLONGED TWENTIETH CENTURY
Part 1
A New Millennium
Iraq at the Centre of the World
So Was It Worth It?
Mojitos in Pyongyang
The Boulder Interview: Palestine and Israel (2004)
Remembering Edward Said
Was Hugo Chávez Murdered?
Havana Diary (2005)
Al Jazeera, Al Bolivar, Telesur
Fellow Traveller: Oliver Stone
In War There Is a Need for Translators

Part 2
The Case against Tony Blair
The Family Miliband
The New Left Review at Fifty
The Charlie Hebdo Massacre
With Satyajit Ray
The Bhuttos of Larkana
A Painter of His Time
Casteism
Come Dancing
The New Adventures of Don Quixote
English Questions
The End of Cricket?
Kings and Queens

BOOK IV: JOTTINGS
Introduction: A Homage to Lu Xun
Parchment Does Burn (1989)
My Dinner with Mambety (1995)
Better Red than Wed (1996)
A Man without Instincts (1997)
Marx on Suicide (2001)
Al Jazeera (2002)
In Tripoli (2006)
Diyarbakir (2006)
Return to Cochabamba (2007)
Murder in the Family (2008)
The Nobel War Prize (2010)
Against the Extreme Centre (2011)
Blitz Spirit: Alex Cockburn (2011)
Pissing on Insurgents (2012)
Lincoln in His Lover’s Nightgown (2012)
‘Indian Army Rape Us’ (2013)
Ships in the Night (2013)
A Tear Gas Canister, Made in Brazil, Used in Turkey (2013)
Gaza: A Disgrace to the World (2014)
Benedict Anderson: An Irishman Abroad (2015)
The Quintet (1992–2016)
Mr Ford’s Hacienda (2018)
‘I’m Glad Edward Said Is Dead’ (2022)
Adieu Boris, Adieu (2022)
Worstward Ho (2022)
Celebrations (2023)
A Missed Churchill Footnote (2023)
Postscript: The Dying Palestinian

Epilogue: The Ashes of Gaza

Acknowledgements
Index