An Interview with Chris Wattie


Chris Wattie is a veteran, journalist and writer whose book Contact Charlie: The Canadian Army, The Taliban and the Battle that Saved Afghanistan was based on his experiences as an embedded journalist in Kandahar in 2006. Phil: What first attracted you to becoming a journalist? Chris: I’ve always believed that journalism is as much a … Continue reading An Interview with Chris Wattie

An Interview with Ben Fox


Ben Fox is a serial entrepreneur and avid reader whose latest venture is a new platform for book discovery, www.shepherd.com. I was curious to know more about what drove him to pursue this new venture, and he kindly agreed to be interviewed. Phil: You have a number of businesses behind you already, mostly very tech focused. … Continue reading An Interview with Ben Fox

An Interview with Ele Pawelski


Ele Pawelski is a lawyer, former humanitarian worker and the author of The Finest Supermarket in Kabul, published in 2017 by Quattro Books. Many of the works written recently that are set in Afghanistan have been by soldiers who served there, and so I was interested in talking to someone whose experience in the country was … Continue reading An Interview with Ele Pawelski

Review: The Caravan


There has been a lot written in the last twenty years about “global jihad,” although finding good analysis rather than rhetoric can be hard. Thomas Hegghammer does a great service with his latest book, The Caravan, which sheds light on a previously dim corner of the subject. Part of the issue with the general Western … Continue reading Review: The Caravan

An Interview with Alastair Luft


Alastair Luft is an Ottawa based writer, whose two books—Jihadi Bride and The Battle Within—have both received a lot of praise. He’s also a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, and someone who took up writing in earnest later in life. Although I don’t know him personally, I know him through others, and wanted to find out … Continue reading An Interview with Alastair Luft