Mid Wales author shortlisted for prestigious literary prize

The Good War: The Battle for Afghanistan 2006-2014 by Jack Fairweather, from Abermule, near Newtown, is one of five books nominated for the Canadian Lionel Gelber prize, awarded to the best non-fiction book on international affairs.

Mr Fairweather, a former Telegraph and Washington Post Reporter, spent a year in Afghanistan from 2007 researching the book and has returned to the country regularly since.

It is his second book, following on from "A War of Choice", which was a best-selling history of the Iraq war written after a three year stint as the Daily Telegraph's Baghdad Bureau Chief after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Mr Fairweather is currently Middle East editor for Bloomberg News in Istanbul and said he is delighted to have been nominated for the award.

"I'm honoured to have The Good War internationally recognized," he said.

"I've been thrilled with how well the book's been received, both by reviewers, and the military and diplomatic community that opened up to me for the writing of the book."

The Good War is the first full narrative history of the Afghan war from the 2001 invasion to the 2014 withdrawal.

It examines the Western-led campaign and Mr Fairweather's research for the book included hundreds of interviews, previously unpublished archives and months of experience living and reporting in the country.

He said: "I was based in Kabul, where we lived with an Afghan family near the city centre. From there I travelled around the country, mostly on US and British military embeds to places like Kandahar and Helmand. Early on it was still possible to drive yourself to some but the roads soon became too dangerous with Taliban check-points."

Mr Fairweather said that one of his biggest challenges in writing the book was getting to know Afghanistan.

He said: "For many westerners Afghanistan held a special romance. I was struck by how poor, how vast and disparate the country was, and how hard it was to get to know."

Following his experiences in Afghanistan, Mr Fairweather says it is vital that the country is now able to shape its own future - including the Taliban.

He said: "The failure of the Afghan government to hold far-flung districts may be galling for many - but the Taliban's return is not necessarily a bad thing.

"For 13 years, the west has sought to impose on Afghanistan its own vision for the country. But instead of creating a fair and sustainable nation, it has built a Frankenstein state, animated only by vast injections of money and tens of thousands of troops.

"It's time to allow that creation - born of a misplaced belief in nation-building - to perish and let Afghans fashion their own system, imperfect as it might appear."