Blood and Sand

On the June 6, 2004, while on assignment in Riyadh, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner and cameraman Simon Cumbers were ambushed by Islamist gunmen. Simon was killed outright. Frank was hit in the shoulder and leg. As he lay in the dust, a figure stood over him and pumped four more bullets into his body at point-blank range...

Against all the odds, Frank Gardner survived.

Today, although partly paralysed, Frank continues to travel the world, reporting and making documentaries for the BBC. This acclaimed memoir was brought up to date with a new chapter that recounted his return to Saudi Arabia for the first time since he was shot and the story he tells continues to move and inspire, and remains an affirmation of his deep understanding of - and affection for - the Islamic world in these uncertain times.
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'Gardner tells his remarkable tale well and bravely, with an astonishing lack of anger and enduring love and respect for the Islamic world' SUNDAY TIMES

'Brave, unsentimental and genuinely inspiring' EVENING STANDARD
'What makes Gardner's moving, often humorous, deeply personal story so important is the fact that he has woven into it a brilliantly dispassionate, clear-eyed account of the Islamic world' SCOTSMAN
'A witty, self-deprecating, inspiring testament' DAILY TELEGRAPH

Frank Gardner is the BBC's full-time Security Correspondent, reporting for television and radio on issues of domestic and international security, notably on Al-Qaeda-related terrorism. A fluent Arabist, with a degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies, he was previously the BBC's Middle East Correspondent based in Cairo, and before that in Dubai. He has written for the Daily Telegraph, Economist, Sunday Times, and Time Out and has been published in The Best of Sunday Times Travel Writing. He is the author of Far Horizons and was awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to journalism.