As Susan Miller so convincingly shows us, independence was won not by pure-minded, turban-wearing, Islamic martyr-heroes coming down from the mountains on horseback, but by those who adapted and learned to use foreign technology to their own ends.

On June 17th 1578 the young King Dom Sebastian of Portugal attended a service in the cathedral, where he was presented with a new standard embroidered with an imperial crown.  For it was assumed that the dignity of the Kingdom of Portugal would ascend ever higher and he would become the first Christian Emperor of Morocco.

Septimius Severus (145-211) was one of the greatest of the Roman Emperors but remains one of the least known. I have always been fascinated that this man used to the heat of his native North Africa, should die in northern England during a campaign to conquer Scotland.

“Rashid Boudjedra has his finger on the pulse of his country's heart and soul, does more than offer us a great novel about Algeria - he gives us a fascinating reflection on the ambiguities of history" - Le Monde

The Sword and the Cross is a tale of two extraordinary men who lived in an extraordinary place during an extraordinary time. It is the story of General Laperinne and Father Foucauld: the two greatest figures from the turn-of-the-century French colonial conquest of Sahara