Damascus Diaries: Life Under the Assads

by Peter Clark

When Peter Clark arrived in Damascus 1992 to open the new British Council office, he was not to know that the next five years were to give him an unique window on the upper echelons of Syrian society in the last few years of Hafez Al-Assad’s rule. Here we see the dramas and routines of everyday life played out against the backdrop of the world’s oldest continually inhabited city on the eve of collapse into civil war. Enchanting and alarming by turns, everyday events combine to paint a vivid and almost nostalgic picture of life in this remarkable city.