Journalist and bestselling author, Robert Lacey offers a penetrating and insightful look at Saudi Arabia at Fairfield University's Inspired Writers Series, Friday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. in the Dolan School of Business Dining Room. The World Affairs Forum is a co-sponsor of this event. General admission is $15; call (203) 254-4110 to reserve seats.

Lacey, a noted British historian is well known for his original research, which gets him close to - and often living alongside - his subject. His latest book, a study of Saudi Arabia, originally published in 1981, "Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia," has been updated and will be available Oct. 22. "Inside the Kingdom," which was on The New York Times bestseller list when it was first published, is acknowledged as required reading for businessmen, diplomats and students all over the world.

To research "Inside the Kingdom," Lacey and his family lived for eighteen months beside the Red Sea in Jeddah. He discovered a country of astonishing contrasts, where computer print-outs open with the words "In the name of God," where men who grew up in goat-hair tents now dominate the money markets of the world and where murderers and adulterers are executed in the street.

"Inside the Kingdom" is also the story of the House of Sa'ud, a dynasty that has fought its way from poverty and obscurity to wealth and power. A family characterized by fierce loyalty among its members, ruthlessness towards its enemies and dedication to one of the world's most severe and demanding creeds.

For the updated version of "Inside the Kingdom," Lacey returned to Saudi Arabia and spent the last three years, once again, in Jeddah. While living for years among the nation's princes, paupers and clerics, Lacey has endeavored to find out how the consequences of the 1970s oil boom produced a society at war with itself. "Inside the Kingdom" is a modern history of the Saudis in their own words, revealing a people attempting to reconcile life under religious law with the demands of a rapidly changing world.

Lacey appears regularly on ABC's Good Morning America and on CNN's Larry King Live .

For more information about Fairfield University's Inspired Writers Series, visit the website at: http://www.fairfield.edu/arts/qc_forum.html#iwriter .

Posted On: 10-05-2009 10:10 AM

Volume: 42 Number: 73