From the Garden of Eden to St Peter's Basilica in Rome, from ancient stories chronicling the changing fortunes of various peoples to the present-day findings of archaeologists and scholars, the history of the region known as the Holy Lands, which now covers Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Israel, yields fascinating and often contintious information about the origins of western civilization. As the key point of contact linking Europe, Asia and Africa, the Holy Lands has been a stage for both peaceful exchanges and violent clashes between cultures, as it continues in the 21st century.

'It would not do to be found in the desert under these circumstances: firing wildly into the cactus from a car full of drugs'. Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone showcases the evolution of the writer of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Hell's Angels, through his work at the magazine that he helped to put on the map. Jann S. Wenner, Hunter Thompson's editor and friend for nearly thirty-five years, has chosen the pieces, including many never collected before. They show how Thompson's Rolling Stone writing, when taken as a whole, forms an extended, allusive autobiography of the writer himself...