Bowen, Jeremy 1960–

PERSONAL: Born February 6, 1960, in Cardiff, Wales; son of Gareth and Jennifer (Delany) Bowen. Education: University College, London, B.A.; attended Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Thomas Dunne Books, 175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Journalist. British Broadcasting Corporation, London, England, television reporter, Middle East correspondent, 1995–2000, host of "Breakfast" program, 2000–02, special correspondent, 2003–.

AWARDS, HONORS: Best News Correspondent citation, New York Television Festival, 1995; Best Breaking News Report citation, New York Television Festival, 1996, for coverage of the assassination of Israeli President Yitzack Rabin.

WRITINGS:

Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East (nonfiction), Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Jeremy Bowen is an experienced war correspondent who has reported for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) from more than fifty countries, including Rwanda, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Somalia. He is most particularly known for his knowledge of the Middle East, having spent several years there on assignment. His book Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East is a detailed account of the 1967 war that pitted Israel and Egypt against Jordan and Syria. That short, intense conflict has shaped Arab-Israeli relations ever since.

According to Fred Rhodes, a reviewer for Middle East, "Bowen presents a brilliantly compelling new history of the conflict." A journalist with a formidable array of contacts, Bowen conducted extensive research and interviewed key participants in the war and the intrigue leading up to it. While his hour-by-hour account is meticulously detailed, it is also a "gripping, fast-paced narrative," according to Marcia L. Sprules in Library Journal. Rhodes commented that Bowen's account reads like "a thriller, the more compelling for being true…. You emerge from the book feeling you have been as close an observer of a war as you are ever likely to be."

Bowen's even-handedness in recounting the conflict was commended by Charles Foster, who in Contemporary Review predicted that the author would provoke both Israeli and Arab supporters by revealing the moral failings of both factions. Foster concluded of Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East: "This is a piece of humane and honest writing which should be on the shelves of anyone with a serious interest in the conflict, and on the bedside table of anyone who wants a great, fast read."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Contemporary Review, May, 2004, Charles Foster, review of Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East, p. 303.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2004, review of Six Days, p. 1128.

Library Journal, January 1, 2005, Marcia L. Sprules, review of Six Days, p. 126.

Middle East, March, 2005, Fred Rhodes, review of Six Days, p. 64.

ONLINE

British Broadcasting Corporation Web site, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/ (May 5, 2005), "Jeremy Bowen."