Con Coughlin - Author

Author

Coughlin is also the author of several books. His first book was Hostage: The Complete Story of the Lebanon Captives (Little, Brown 1992), which was followed by a study of the politics of modern Jerusalem, A Golden Basin Full of Scorpions which was BBC correspondent John Simpson’s “book of the year” and was described as “excellent, a brilliant book” by the distinguished author and critic A.N. Wilson.

In 2002 Coughlin published a biography of Saddam Hussein. The American edition, Saddam: King of Terror (ECCO) was a New York Times bestseller in 2003, and received international critical acclaim.

His next book, American Ally: Tony Blair and the War on Terror (ECCO, 2006) was nominated Kirkus Reviews books of the year. In 2009 Coughlin published Khomeini’s Ghost (Macmillan, London, and ECCO, New York) a study of the life of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his impact on the radicalisation of the Islamic world during the past thirty years. Historian Dominic Sandbrook, reviewing Khomeini's Ghost in The Observer, writes: "Readers already familiar with recent Iranian history will not discover much new information in Coughlin's account, but it nevertheless makes a very readable and entertaining introduction to a nation badly misunderstood in the west. And while Coughlin makes no secret of his deep antipathy to the Iranian regime, his treatment of its founder is satisfyingly nuanced". Other reviews, such as the one published in The New York Times by Iranian-American journalist Azadeh Moaveni, however wrote that the book contained factual errors and misrepresentations of facts. The New York Times review also said that Coughlin took out of context documents in order to bolster his argument.

In addition Coughlin has regularly written for several other publications including the Spectator, the Daily Mail, the Wall Street Journal and Atlantic Monthly. He has also appeared regularly on television and radio in Britain and the United States. During the 2003 Iraq War he was an analyst for CNN, and then became a foreign affairs analyst for MSNBC and NBC. In Britain he broadcasts regularly for the BBC and Sky News.