Poverty + anarchy + drug dollars = Mexico
You may not have heard of the Maras. Or Barrio 18. Or the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or the Zatas,…
No mappa mundi
As a boy I spent quite a lot of my free time trying to fake up ancient-looking documents. This hopeless…
A fictional country split in two
Sudan — a country that ceased to exist in 2011 — is or was one of the last untouristed wildernesses…
The perils of partition
John Keay’s excellent new book on the modern history of South Asia plunges the reader head first into some wildly…
Pirates on parade
Hear the word ‘pirate’ and what picture springs to your mind? I see a richly-bearded geezer in a tricorne hat…
