His story takes us beyond the often strict boundaries of the news into the very real dilemmas and fears behind its scenes.

Living with Ghosts is a deeply personal account of one man’s doubts and decisions, and the challenges of reporting a war on his doorstep.But his highest profile was during the period covered by this book, one of furtive meetings with a succession of IRA spokesmen dubbed “P O’Neill”, operators from shady reaches of the security services and loyalist brigadiers in Shankill and east Belfast safe houses. For many of us who have lived through the troubles, the past is something we’ve tried to forget, move on from, suppress. I hope that our political leaders do something, even at those late stage to address this, but I am no more convinced that they will do so, than the author will seek the help he needs! In November 2017 the people of Zimbabwe took to the streets in an unprecedented alliance with the military. Through astonishing interviews with powerful insiders, Blood and Oil tells how MBS's cabal played the Saudi economy and capitalised on the omnipotence of feudal power while effectively stamping out dissent, before allegations of his extreme brutality and excess began to slip out.

The minuscule geography of Northern Ireland is also ever present, the pressure of moving around Belfast – by any measure not a big city – surrounded in the 1980s and 1990s not just by looming hills, but army watchtowers and helicopters. A story of breath-taking dealings that range from Riyadh to London, Paris to America, this is a thrilling and brutal investigation into extreme wealth, one of the world's most decisive and dangerous new leaders, and the bid for Saudi transformation that is reverberating around the world. He goes deep into his contacts with the IRA, the loyalist organisations, MI5, Special Branch, the Army and the many other players in the conflict period, and he joins the dots on a journey out of 'war' that has not yet found peace of mind. Brian talks of personal experiences during the troubles not just his own but how others were affected.Brian Rowan’s intense new book, Living with Ghosts, might be said to be in disagreement with the title of the earlier work. In his journalistic career Rowan walked the thinnest of lines, where morals and principles were blurred, and as a result his mind became tortured. If you've ever wondered what would happen if limitless money met limitless power, wonder no longer, it's all here. In reality, every democracy, however sophisticated or stable it may look, has been attacked or actually destroyed by a would-be Caesar, from Ancient Greece to the present day.

The final part of this book describes how and why would-be Caesars come to grief, from the Gunpowder Plot to Trump's march on the Capitol and the ejection of Boris Johnson by his own MPs, and ends with a defence of the grubby glories of parliamentary politics and a thought-provoking roadmap of the way back to constitutional government. He goes deep into his contacts with the IRA, the loyalist organisations, MI5, Special Branch, the army and the many other players in the conflict period. There is a comforting illusion shared by historians and political commentators from Fukuyama back to Macaulay, Mill and Marx, that history progresses in a nice straight line towards liberal democracy or socialism, despite the odd hiccup. In Living With Ghosts renowned veteran journalist Brian Rowan retraces his steps through Northern Ireland’s conflict years, as he bravely delves into the darkness of those times. Across its pages, veteran journalist Brian Rowan retraces his steps back through the tunnel of Northern Ireland's conflict years and into the darkness of those times.There are Big Caesars who set out to achieve total social control and Little Caesars who merely want to run an agreeable kleptocracy without opposition: from Julius Caesar and Oliver Cromwell through Napoleon and Bolivar, to Mussolini, Salazar, De Gaulle and Trump. His story takes us beyond the often-strict boundaries of the news into the dilemmas, arguments and fears behind its scenes.

Thoughtful and melancholy … If this book helps to exorcise at least some of their demons, it will certainly have served a valuable purpose. Ferdinand Mount opens up a fascinating exploration of how and why Caesars seize power and why they fall. In his career Rowan walks along the thinnest of lines on a path where morals and ethics and principles are blurred, and his mind becomes tortured. This is as close to the truth, to the real story of the corruption, vulgarities, horrors, and lies of the Kingdom and its current despot as we are likely to get. Living With Ghosts is a memoir of Brian Rowan's journalistic encounters during the Troubles and an analysis of their meaning at many years’ remove.The sense from reading Rowan’s memoir of reporting on the conflict, its resolution and aftermath is that it might never make sense. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.