Have the Saudis Joined the Embargo Game?

Quartet have published an outstanding book on Saudi Arabia and its history, Ibn Saud: The Desert Warrior and his Legacy by Michael Darlow and Barbara Bray. It adds to our knowledge of the desert Kingdom in a valuable, sympathetic way and is objective in its analysis, besides being highly readable.

Now, two questions baffle me. The Saudi Embassy has bought only two copies of the book, and the press in Britain have ignored it completely.

Try as I may, I am unable to come up with an explanation on either count.

When the renowned Robert Lacey published his latest book on Saudi Arabia over a year ago, it sold well and scored a great deal of attention in the review columns. Some of this, in the way of the press, with its nose for sensationalism, zeroed in on a minor theme of lesbianism in the Kingdom, and maybe helped to make the book a favourite with the media. One is inclined to say, so what? Lesbianism is rampant the world over, so why pick on Saudi Arabia?

Ibn Saud by Darlow and Bray contains a great deal of fresh information on the founder and has unearthed some rare photographs, helping to give a different dimension to the remarkable story of how, in the twentieth century, a phenomenal leader created the base for the most powerful national oil economy, not only in the region but also the world.

The book is moreover totally impartial in acknowledging what was and is positive in the Kingdom. It is only critical in a measured way where the balance needs to be addressed for the sake of accuracy on the one hand, and to make a realistic assessment on the other.

Have the Saudis become so afraid of constructive criticism which lacks all malice that they can only stomach bland flattery in what is written about them and their place in the world?

It seems they are completely unable to deal with public relations and are blinded to those in the wider world who wish them well. They work against themselves and their own interests.

In the present flurries of WikiLeaks revelations, we none of us know, from day to day, what new diplomatic blunder is going to be exposed. Every foreign mission in the world is having to brace itself for a likely onslaught of embarrassing truth-telling.

In this atmosphere the Saudis need to develop a more robust confidence in defending themselves, and this can only be done through honesty in facing whatever contradictions or blemishes exist in their society. They will then have a chance of winning the hearts and minds of people by acknowledging that perfection is rarely attainable and that progress in the Kingdom is being achieved ­ slowly, perhaps, but in ways gaining impetus with the passage of time.

They should welcome and recognise their real friends over those who are false and merely obsequious, and be true and encouraging to those whose motives are honourable.

As for the media attitude to books that emanate from small independents rather than the big conglomerate publishers, it may be said that these days it matters little what you write. The important thing from their viewpoint is that the author be considered a celebrity, either through his or her previous publications or through an established popularity with the media.

Try to unravel the logic of this, and you face an impossible task. The winners and losers are prejudged and the pattern is locked into an unalterable dynamic. The odds against penetrating the stone wall of media prejudice are so great that one may as well give up.

Is this supposed to be a good thing for the book industry, where a book now is rarely given exposure because of its qualities, but all too often for other reasons that are superficial and marginal?

Are we falling into a trap of expediency in the short term but a disastrous future for our literary legacy in the long run?

I often ponder these questions. Quartet have recently published a number of books that are important, historically and politically. So far as the literary editors and critics are concerned, these have been dumped into oblivion.

Is Ibn Saud to suffer the same fate?

With the public empowering themselves in so many ways through the digital revolution, is it not time for the readers who care for books to start to rebel? Saudi Arabia can lead the way by purchasing a large number of Ibn Saud, and circulating them to as wide a circle as possible.

For others, buy the book to judge for yourselves and help to reverse this unhealthy trend, which seems to run through the whole of the book industry.

The unwritten embargo that so hurts and damages the remaining small independent publishers must be broken.