Kelly, Saul 1957-

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KELLY, Saul 1957-

PERSONAL:

Born 1957; son of Dr. John Barrett (a professor) and Valda Elizabeth (Pitt) Kelly; married Judith Elizabeth Nicola Liddell-King, 1993 (divorced, 2003); children: Jacob. Education: London School of Economics and Political Science, B.A., 1980, Ph.D., 1995. Hobbies and other interests: Tennis, rugby.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Defence Studies Department, Joint Services Command and Staff College, Faringdon Rd., Watchfield, Swindon, Wiltshire SN6 8TS England. E-mail—skelly@jscsc.org.

CAREER:

King's College London (at Joint Services Command and Staff College), England, lecturer in defence studies, 2001—. Previously worked as research associate, International Boundaries Research Unit, University of Durham, and research fellow, University of Westminster.

MEMBER:

London Library, Libyan Society, Royal Geographical Society (fellow).

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Anthony Gorst) Whitehall and the Suez Crisis, Frank Cass (Portland, OR), 2000.

(With Charles Douglas-Home) Dignified and Efficient: The British Monarchy in the Twentieth Century, Claridge (London, England), 2000.

Cold War in the Desert: Britain, the United States, and the Italian Colonies, 1945-52, St. Martin's (New York, NY), 2000.

The Lost Oasis: The Desert War and the Hunt for Zerzura, J. Murray (London, England), 2002, Westview (Boulder, CO), 2003.

Contributor of essays to books, including Jonathan Hollowell, editor, Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century, Macmillan (London, England); and Kent Fedorowich and Martin Thomas, editors, The Politics of Colonial Retreat: Decolonization and International Diplomacy, 1940-75, Frank Cass (London, England).

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A study of the role of the British Embassy in Washington on Anglo-American relations; SOE in the Middle East and an account of the intelligence war in the Middle East from 1939-45.

SIDELIGHTS:

Saul Kelly's scholarship centers upon the Cold War in the Middle East and on British espionage efforts in the North African desert during the Second World War. Whitehall and the Suez Crisis, which he edited with Anthony Gorst, consists of twelve essays profiling "key Whitehall warriors" who—sometimes against their better judgment—helped to deal with the Suez Crisis. In the International History Review, Howard Dooley called the work "a ground-breaking book about the workings of the machinery of the British government during the Suez Crisis." Dooley praised the contributors for concerning themselves with "the actions and problems of the civil servants in the back rooms who did not set policy but had to implement it and pick up the pieces afterwards." Spectator contributor Donald Cameron Watt felt that, taken together, the essays in the book "give a remarkably consistent picture." Watt also commended the essays as "carefully crafted perceptive studies." In his review, Dooley concluded by calling Whitehall and the Suez Crisis "a book full of plums, and rounded out by a fine bibliographic essay."

The late Charles Douglas-Home was at work on a book about the British monarchy when he died. Kelly finished the work and published it as Dignified and Efficient: The British Monarchy in the Twentieth Century. The book explores the monarchy from a political perspective and evaluates the performance of those kings and queens who reigned in the United Kingdom during the twentieth century. In his Times Literary Supplement review of Dignified and Efficient, John Grigg concluded: "Between them, Charles Douglas-Home and Saul Kelly have made a good contribution to the vast literature on the British monarchy. Their study of an ever-fascinating subject is both thoughtful and readable."

Kelly's The Lost Oasis: The Desert War and the Hunt for Zerzura tells the true story of the adventuresome explorer/spy who is featured in the novel The English Patient. Kelly's book describes the membership and objectives of the Zerzura Club, an international group of desert-lovers who began exploring the uncharted North African desert in the 1930s and then worked as spies for their respective governments or allegiances during World War II. One of these members, Lazlo Almasy, was portrayed in fiction as "the English Patient" by author Michael Ondaatje. In the Times Literary Supplement professor Hew Strachan felt that Kelly's "scholarly detective work clearly reveals how signals and human intelligence work off each other, and how 'spy stories' need once again to be reintegrated into the dominant narrative." Spectator reviewer Justin Marozzi observed: "Kelly's history of the early exploration of the Libyan desert and the swashbuckling operations of Bagnold and Almasy during the war is a fascinating read, packed with detail. Deserts, war and espionage are a potent trio from a literary point of view."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 2003, Michele Leber, review of The Lost Oasis: The Desert War and the Hunt for Zerzura, p. 1272.

Choice, December, 2000, review of Cold War in the Desert: Britain, the United States, and the Italian Colonies, 1945-52, p. 757.

English Historical Review, September, 2000, Michael Dockrill, review of Whitehall and the Suez Crisis, p. 1037.

Geographical, September, 2002, "Recommended Reading on Africa," p. 56.

History: Review of New Books, fall, 2003, Richard A. Voeltz, review of The Lost Oasis, p. 29.

International History Review, September, 2001, Howard Dooley, review of Whitehall and the Suez Crisis, pp. 717-719; December, 2001, Scott L. Bills, review of Cold War in the Desert, pp. 977-978.

Publishers Weekly, March 31, 2003, review of The Lost Oasis, p. 51.

Spectator, April 1, 2000, Donald Cameron Watt, "Cock-up and Cover-up," review of Whitehall and the Suez Crisis, p. 58; June 8, 2002, Justin Marozzi, "Strange Exploits of the Zerzura Club," review of The Lost Oasis, p. 46.

Times Literary Supplement, December 22, 2000, John Grigg, "Stirred but Not Shaken," review of Dignified and Efficient: The British Monarchy in the Twentieth Century, p. 8; October 18, 2002, Hew Strachan, "The End of the Beginning," review of The Lost Oasis, p. 14.