Two Kings in Arabia

Sir Reader Bullard, described by Winston Churchill as a "tough Briton with no illusions", was one of the last of that now forgotten band of specialist diplomats, the Levant Consular Service. He rose from student interpreter in pre-1914 Constantinople to become Ambassador in Tehran during the Second World War. In between, he had two spells of duty in Arabia, first Consul in Jeddah 1923-5, and then as Minister there 1936-9. He thus saw the last years of King Hussein of the Hejaz, whom he found exasperating, and some of the great days of Hussein's supplanter, King Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, whom he much respected, a respect which the King returned. During both periods Bullard wrote regularly to his family back in England. These mordant, frank and humorous letters provide an unforgettable picture of a country emerging from mediaevalism to oil-fed wealth at a time when Britain was still the dominant power in the Middle East.