In his third book william dalrymple has dug deep to present the case of the middle easts downtrodden christians more hard-hitting than either of his previous books, from the holy mountain is driven by indignation while leavened with his characteristic jauntiness and humour, it is also profoundly shocking time and time again in the details of dalrymples discoveries i found myself asking: why do we not know this? the sense of unsung tragedy accumulates throughout the chapters of this book from the holy mountain is the most rewarding sort of travel book, combining flashes of lightly-worn scholarship with a powerful sense of place and the immediacy of the best journalism but more than that it is a passionate cri de coeur for a forgotten people which few readers will be able to resist-philip marsden, spectator