Born in 1961, Frank Gardner has been the BBC's Security Correspondent since 2002. He holds a degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies. In 2004, while filming in Saudi Arabia, he was ambushed by terrorists, shot multiple times and left for dead. He survived and returned to active news reporting within a year. He still travels extensively. Awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to journalism, Frank published his bestselling memoir, Blood and Sand, in 2006. His first novel, the thriller Crisis, which introduced readers to SIS operative Luke Carlton, was a No.1 bestseller. The second Luke Carlton thriller, Ultimatum, was also a Sunday Times top 10 bestseller, as was the third, Outbreak. Frank Gardner lives in London.
Gardner is a superb reporter; his terrible experience only make his analysis all the more telling * EVENING STANDARD * Gardner tells his remarkable tale well and bravely, with an astonishing lack of anger and enduring love and respect for the Islamic world * SUNDAY TIMES * Chilling, graphic and admirably unsentimental... Gardner comes across as a modest, thoroughly decent man... an exemplary foreign correspondent * GUARDIAN * A witty, self-deprecating, inspiring testament * DAILY TELEGRAPH * Vivid detail... entertaining anecdotes... Gardner is a tremendous model for what relations between East and West can be... a fine introduction both to journalism and to the culture of the Middle East * INDEPENDENT *