After taking his degree in Arabic at Cambridge, he had an early association with many SOAS academics in the early 1970s, when he worked in book publishing in London before moving to Beirut. There he covered the 1975-1990 civil war from its inception, writing and broadcasting for a wide range of outlets including the BBC, NPR, the Sunday Times, Middle East Economic Survey and Middle East International. He lived in Cairo for four years as BBC Middle East Correspondent, followed by five years in Tehran as Iran Correspondent. From 2005, when he rebased to Beirut, most of his work was in Iraq until the outbreak of the Arab uprisings, which saw his attention shift to Egypt and Syria in particular. His special interests have included the Kurds and the rise of Islamist radicalism.