Sewing Circles of Herat

Christina Lamb is Chief Foreign Correspondent at The Sunday Times. She has since been awarded Foreign Correspondent of the Year five times as well as Europe’s top war reporting prize, the Prix Bayeux and was recently given the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society of Editors. She is the bestselling author of ten books including Farewell Kabul, The Africa House, and The Sewing Circles of Herat and co-wrote the international bestseller I am Malala with Malala Yousafzai and The Girl from Aleppo with Nujeen Mustafa. Her last book Our Bodies, Their Battlefields won the first Pilecki Institute award for war reporting and was shortlisted for Britain's top non-fiction award, the Baillie Gifford Prize, as well as the Orwell Prize and the New York Public Library Bernstein award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an Honorary Fellow of University College Oxford and was made an OBE in 2013.

'"The Sewing Circles of Herat" opens a window on to the deeply unromantic horrors of Taliban-led Afghanistan and, less troubling for the squeamish, tells the remarkable stories of those who dared to defy that particularly vile regime!Lamb writes with pace, conviction and honesty, uncovering both the terrible human cost of the Taliban experiment and the enduring strength of spirit of those who refused to join it.' Justin Marozzi, Sunday Telegraph 'Award-winning foreign correspondent Christina Lamb has written an inspiring and moving account of Afghanistan's plight!Lamb shows that, despite attempts to destroy the country and its culture, its soul remains uncrushed.' Marianne Brace, Independent on Sunday 'A lucid, intimate, haunting book, which sings the song of Lamb's love -- and the tragic plight of a defiant and divided nation.' Sunday Times 'The definitive account of modern Afghanistan! This is a lucid, intimate, haunting book, passionate yet never self-indulgent, which sings the story of Lamb's love -- and the tragic plight of a defiant and divided nation.' Rory Maclean, Sunday Times 'Deeply penetrating, informative and always engaging! Through the dispiriting events under which Afghanistan continues to be submerged, Lamb continually finds delightful people who have latched on to the fact that Faith is an ecclesiastical word for credulity, and offer some hope for the country's future.' Cal McCrystal, Financial Times 'Lamb has a curiosity that demands she listen to anyone -- warlord, reluctant torturer, Pakistani intelligence officer, family of the last man hanged! And beyond the door of the "Golden Needle Ladies' Sewing Classes" in Herat, Lamb is awed by that cultured city's resistance! which, as [she] understands, matters more than pages of guns and rubble.' Veronica Howell, Guardian 'A remarkable blend of outrage, compassion and hope, Christina Lamb's book is an alternately horrifying and uplifting insight into the Taliban regime.' Justin Marozzi, Evening Standard