The Road To Bagdad

Very much a novel of its time, a little hokey, riddled with cliches, and coloured considerably by the patrician attitudes of the day towards women and, er, our Eastern cousins. If I had given up at page 50 I'd have said it was a 2-star book, maybe less. But the action picks up, Gibbs' writing begins to flow better, and Camilla Dean, the female protagonist, begins to show a bit of modern grit. Putting aside its contemporary prejudices, we have a quick, fun read from which it's entirely possible to learn a little about the Middle East of that period, and the attitudes that governed it. I'll push it up to three stars for that.