Books by Con Coughlin

Over a century ago, a young cavalry lieutenant wrote a riveting account of what he saw during his first major campaign, a vicious war against tribal insurgents on the North-West Frontier. Winston Churchill's The Story of the Malakand Field Force, published in 1898, made his reputation as a writer - and as a soldier. More than 120 years later it is still required reading for military commanders on the ground, both British and American.Now, acclaimed author and foreign correspondent Con Coughlin tells the story of that campaign, combining colourful historical narrative, interviews with contemporary key players and the journalist's eye for both a good story and deep analysis. Churchill's First War is not only a dramatic and vivid piece of military history but affords us a rare insight into both the nineteenth-century 'Great Game' and the twenty-first century conflict that has now raged longer than the Second World War and taken more lives than the Falklands.'Incisive and deliciously readable' Daily Express

On 1 February 1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to a tumultuous welcome and the Iranian revolution that that he masterminded has become one of the defining moments of the modern age. Today the challenge of radical Islam represents the greatest threat to world peace seen since the darkest days of the Cold War, and the legacy of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution lies at the heart of many of the world's most intractable conflicts. Khomeini's Ghost is the definitive biographical account of how an impoverished young student from a remote area of southern Iran came to be the political and the spiritual leader of his country. Drawing on a wide variety of Iranian sources, including religious figures who knew and worked with Khomeini both in exile and in power, Con Coughlin examines in detail the principles of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution and the impact of his legacy today, whether it is in Iran's support for radical Islamic groups or Iran's commitment to developing an atom bomb. Frighteningly topical, compellingly readable and written with authority and profound understanding of the subject, this is political biography at its best.