The publication of Far and Wide in 1951 brought a sentence of literary banishment and exile on its brilliant author, Douglas Reed. The publisher, Jonathan Cape, came under great pressure and a book which would have been a runaway bestseller like its predecessors Insanity Fair, Disgrace Abounding and others, was allowed to go out of print.
It is encouraging to find, however, that a book which has an important message is not easily killed. Copies of Far and Wide have continued to circulate all over the English-speaking world, its contents becoming more topical and more relevant with the passage of time as its main insights and predictions were endorsed by unfolding history.
This little book, Behind the Scene is a timely reprint of most of Part 2 of Far and Wide, being a lucid examination of the sources, the motives and modus operandi of two of the major influences at work in the modern world - Communism and Zionism.
The subject is one which Reed handles with all the skill of a professional investigator - and with sympathy and understanding.
THE AUTHOR
Douglas Reed, brilliant London TIMES foreign correspondent between the two wars, won world fame as an independent writer with Insanity Fair, Disgrace Abounding, Somewhere South of Suez and other bestsellers.
After a literary exile of more than 15 years, he proved that his pen had not lost its cunning nor his mind its penetrating powers when he instantly recaptured public attention with two more bestsellers - The Battle for Rhodesia and The Siege of South Africa.
It is a tribute to Reed's extraordinary powers as a reporter of contemporary history that what he wrote more than 25 years ago can stand the test of being reprinted without alteration.
