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Anyone who has lived in or is interested in southern Arabia would find this book evocative and stimulating. It describes the British withdrawal from Aden and the Eastern and Western Aden Protectorates over the period 1960-67. It is a political history, written up by Peter Hinchcliffe and John Ducker who both served in the Overseas Civil Service in southern Arabia. But it is a political history with a difference: in addition to the political narrative, Peter Hinchcliffe has assembled a ground-level view from the memoirs of Political Officers and servicemen who served in the area, while in 2004 Maria Holt, of the University of Westminster, conducted an oral history project among both British and Yemeni narrators. Arguably this novel technique provides a more balanced history than do standard methods: certainly there is more of a human touch.

From a British point of view the overall story is an inglorious one, as the title of the book asserts. At the same time the intentions and actions of the individual British state servants involved were admirable. The particular sadness is that some of these felt so strongly that HMG had let down their friends in the area that they declined to offer their memories for incorporation in the book.

Hooky Walker