About the Author

Known for her use of personal experience to write behind the scenes, Louise Burfitt-Dons draws on her Kuwaiti birth and early upbringing in the oil rich State to write her new spy thriller Our Man In Kuwait.


The plot was inspired by certain incidents that took place during 1960 when the expat community was living under threat of invasion by neighbouring Iraq. That same year author and Naval Intelligence freelancer Ian Fleming visited the country and closely befriended her father Ian Byres, the Preventative Health Officer for Kuwait Oil Company.


Louise was seven. She remembers vividly the men's shared interest in her father's personal zoo and the ensuing contest between a viper and scorpion on their lounge carpet. The two "Ian"s then went out on one of her father's hawking expeditions into the desert which features in the story.


Other elements of which she became aware, such as the British double-agent Kim Philby's tour of the Gulf States prior to his defection to the Soviet Union in 1963, helped shape some of the other major characters,


Louise's Kuwaiti experience and research features in her earlier books. In The Missing Activist, a private investigator goes undercover to learn about Jihadi brides and the sequel The Killing of the Cherrywood MP sees her tackling the counter reaction to Islamic extremism by the Far Right. In The Secret War she probes links between the Chinese Communist Party and UK universities. Louise has also TV thrillers for the Lifetime TV network.

Reviews

A brilliant marriage of fact and fiction-Hamish de Bretton-Gordon OBE, world chemical weapons expert and author of Chemical Warrior Only a novelist with Louise Burfitt-Dons's colourful childhood and universal experience, (born in Kuwait, lived in many places between Kent and Australia) could brilliantly mange to embroider factual geographic, natural, historic and commercial details on the fictional fabric. Adel Darwish.Romance, thrill, the spy who came from the heat, James Bond of Arabia The Middle East NewsA swirling spy thriller.... Ian Fleming's connection with Middle Eastern spies... life as it was in Kuwait as the British Empire era drew to an end London Loves Business BooksRiveting. The IndependentCompelling and credible. A page turner. Mail on SundayWonderfully written thriller. Brilliant constructed plot. Ellie Midwood, USA Today bestselling author of The Girl From BerlinWonderful and gentle thriller. I loved everything about the book- ROB FORDA great mix of small town politics and big power plays-Karen Smythe, Library JournalCaptivating-Toni Obsorne ReviewsMulled the drama over for days. Thrilling-Eunice, NETGALLEYIntriguing mix of historical fact and fiction to keep you wanting to learn more-JACKIE, NETGALLEYFascinating. A terrific story-BOOKSTRIt kept me up way past my normal bedtime, I had to finish it-Laurie Robertson