Skip navigation
London Review of Books London Review Bookshop

Articles marked subscriber-only content are available to registered subscribers to the print edition of the London Review of Books. For information about subscribing to the LRB, click here. If you are already a subscriber and you wish to register for online access, click here. Articles marked not in archive are not currently available in the LRB online archive.

James Meek

James Meek’s most recent novel, We Are Now Beginning Our Descent, was awarded the Prince Maurice prize.

From the London Review dated 8 February 2007

The Original Targets

  • The Looming Tower: Al-Qaida’s Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright

In 1995, in Sudan, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri put two teenage boys on trial for treason, sodomy and attempted murder, in a Sharia court of his own devising. Of the two boys, one, Ahmed, was only 13. Zawahiri, the partner in terror of Osama bin Laden, had them stripped naked; he showed that they had reached puberty, and therefore counted as adults. The court found the boys guilty. Zawahiri had them shot, filmed their confessions and executions, and put video copies out to warn other potential traitors. [ read more . . . ]

Selected bibliography

Search the web for James Meek: Google · Yahoo! · AltaVista · Wikipedia

In the LRB archive

When the Floods Came · 31 July 2008

Dead Not Deid · 22 May 2008

Hooyah!! · 2 August 2007

  • Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill

The Original Targets · 8 February 2007

  • The Looming Tower: Al-Qaida’s Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright

subscriber-only content It’ll all be over one day · 8 June 2006

  • Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantánamo and Back by Moazzam Begg and Victoria Brittain

subscriber-only content In fonder times, the tsar scalded and stabbed to death a prince · 1 December 2005

  • Ivan the Terrible: First Tsar of Russia by Isabel de Madariaga  Buy this book

Crocodile’s Breath · 5 May 2005

  • The Subterranean Railway: How the London Underground Was Built and How It Changed the City For Ever by Christian Wolmar  Buy this book

subscriber-only content Schlepping around the Flowers · 4 November 2004

Reasons to be Miserable · 8 July 2004

  • The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia out in the Cold by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy

Trillion Dollar Disease · 7 August 2003

  • The Hungry Gene: The Science of Fat and the Future of Thin by Ellen Ruppel Shell

subscriber-only content Run to the hills · 22 May 2003

subscriber-only content Take a nap · 6 February 2003

  • Cool Comfort: America’s Romance with Air-Conditioning by M. Ackerman

subscriber-only content Every Young Boy’s Dream · 14 November 2002

  • Platform by Michel Houellebecq, translated by Frank Wynne

Everyone has a voice · 11 July 2002

  • A Grain of Truth: the Media, the Public and Biotechnology by Susanna Hornig Priest
  • Travels in the Genetically Modified Zone by Mark Winston
  • Seeds of Contention: World Hunger and the Global Controversy over GM Crops by Per Pinstrup-Andersen

subscriber-only content If they’re ill, charge them extra · 21 March 2002

  • Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
  • Salt: Grain of Life by Pierre Laszlo, translated by Mary Beth Mader

subscriber-only content Where does the rubble end and the ground begin? · 3 January 2002

Nuremberg Rally, Invasion of Poland, Dunkirk . . . · 6 September 2001

  • Ghost MacIndoe by Jonathan Buckley
  • The Twins by Tessa de Loo
  • Riptide by John Lawton
  • The Day We Had Hitler Home by Rodney Hall
  • Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
  • The Fire Fighter by Francis Cottam
  • The Element of Water by Stevie Davies
  • The Bronze Horsewoman by Paullina Simons
  • The Siege by Helen Dunmore

subscriber-only content We Do Ron Ron Ron, We Do Ron Ron · 24 May 2001

  • Fast-Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

subscriber-only content The reproduce, but they don’t eat, breathe or excrete · 22 March 2001

  • The Invisible Enemy: A Natural History of Viruses by Dorothy Crawford

Sex is best when you lose your head · 16 November 2000

  • Promiscuity: An Evolutionary History of Sperm Competition and Sexual Conflict by Tim Birkhead

Drowned in the Desert · 20 July 2000

  • A Fly for the Prosecution: How Insect Evidence Helps Solves Crimes by Lee Goff

Not currently in the LRB archive

 not available in archive Chemical Soup · 18 March 1999

  • Lenin's Embalmers by Ilya Zbarsky and Samuel Hutchinson

From the LRB letters page