Congratulations Riverbend!

I am recycling this, together with a comment from Haloscan that appeared yesterday. It was also on Books and Ideas on Blogspot for 4 April 2006.

Baghdad Burning is a treasure, now duly being recognised. In Riverbend’s own words:

After an internet absence of a few days, I returned to find my inbox flooded with dozens of emails with the subject “Congratulations!!!”. In mid March, “Baghdad Burning” won Best Middle East and Africa blog and received a Bloggie so I thought the sudden surge of congratulatory emails was for that esteemed blog award (we would like to thank the academy…).

But, I was shocked to find out the BOOK “Baghdad Burning” had made the short list for the Samuel Johnson Prize- a prestigious, British award for non-fiction!! I didn’t even know it was on the long list for that award so it came as a huge surprise…

Read Baghdad Burning as a testament to intelligence and the human spirit, and as an antidote to the propaganda you so often see.

The comment

Since you like Riverbend, I thought you might enjoy her interview. — Wendy