Jonathan Aitken skilfully analyses the country's achievements in all its complexity to explain Kazakhstan and Nazarbayev's emergence on the international stage. Kazakhstan is colossal in size, complicated in its history, colourful in its culture and is a nation state that most outsiders know little of. Much of the existing narrative revolves around the country's first president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. But his life can only be understood in the context of the land in which he was born, raised and became a leader. For centuries the tribes of Kazakhstan had been plundered and conquered by foreign invaders. The most ruthless of these were the 20th century leaders of the Soviet Union, but after its collapse it was Nazarbayev who emerged as the new President of the nation state. Jonathan Aitken's masterly book is a riveting account of how Kazakhstan has capitalised on its natural resources (including oil) to become one of the great economic success stories of the modern era. Nazarbayev himself is widely admired as a political leader and strategist, having overcome extraordinary crises including hyperinflation, food shortages and the emigration of two million people. However, his record on human rights is less than perfect and the independence of the judiciary and the press are questionable. Corruption is also widespread in Kazakh society. The obstacles faced in becoming a successful economy are described and examined honestly in this truly fascinating story.

Jonathan Aitken and Edward Smyth both experienced a dramatic fall from grace. Each of them found themselves removed from their homes and loved ones, locked up in prison and having to deal with the fallout of their actions. However, in the middle of their lowest point they discovered something life-changing. God hadn't forgotten about them. Doing Time offers encouragement and advice on how to survive and even make the most of life inside prison. Offering the sort of practical and spiritual wisdom that only comes from personal experience, it shows that it is never too late for God to help us find a new way forward in our lives.

He was Nixon's hatchet man. A jailed felon. And now, one of the most significant Christian leaders of our time. Here is his life story.
Charles Colson has become one of the most revered leaders of our time. His ministry outreach, Prison Fellowship, has swelled to 40,000 volunteers working in 100 countries. His Angel Tree Christmas program provides presents to more than half a million children of prison inmates every year. His daily radio broadcast, "BreakPoint, " airs daily on more than 1,000 radio outlets across the country. And his twenty books have sold more than five million copies in the U.S.
But God had to work some mighty miracles to bring this unusual servant to this prominent place of service. After all, Colson was known as President Nixon's "hatchet man." His involvement in the Watergate conspiracy led him to prison-and then to a life-changing encounter with God.
Now, noted author Jonathan Aitken has written the first biography that compellingly presents a first-rate understanding of the political, historical, and spiritual journeys of Charles W. Colson... a life redeemed.

He was Nixon's hatchet man. A jailed felon. And now, one of the most significant Christian leaders of our time. Here is his life story.
Charles Colson has become one of the most revered leaders of our time. His ministry outreach, Prison Fellowship, has swelled to 40,000 volunteers working in 100 countries. His Angel Tree Christmas program provides presents to more than half a million children of prison inmates every year. His daily radio broadcast, "BreakPoint, " airs daily on more than 1,000 radio outlets across the country. And his twenty books have sold more than five million copies in the U.S.
But God had to work some mighty miracles to bring this unusual servant to this prominent place of service. After all, Colson was known as President Nixon's "hatchet man." His involvement in the Watergate conspiracy led him to prison-and then to a life-changing encounter with God.
Now, noted author Jonathan Aitken has written the first biography that compellingly presents a first-rate understanding of the political, historical, and spiritual journeys of Charles W. Colson... a life redeemed.

When Jonathan Aitken was in prison, he experienced a religious conversion. When he emerged into the light of day, he headed for Oxford where he read for and obtained a degree in theology.
The Psalms have assumed a quite exceptional importance in his life. The Psalms are at the very heart of the Christian life and its liturgy - in them is found the whole range of human emotion, of triumph and despair.
In this new book, Aitken expounds his own view of the Psalms, the fruit of much prayer, study and reflection. He has busy, stressed modern men and women and the forefront of his mind as he writes. Aitken was a successful businessman and financier before he ever entered government as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He is fully aware of the enormous pressures on people in countless walks of life - as speed of communication increases and more and more people are obliged to live with targets hanging over them like the sword of Damocles.
Aitken writes 'out of the depths': he has experienced as profoundly as any of us the heights of adulation and the depths of disgrace and shame and he understands the meaning of repentance. This is an account of the Psalms tried and tested in raw human emotion.
This book is designed to be kept in the top drawer of a businessman's desk, the satchel of a student, or the briefcase of a top flight lady executive.

In this sequel to his first volume of autobiography ("Pride and Perjury"), Aitken starts his story as he is taken down from the courtroom and incarcerated at Her Majesty's Pleasure. He writes frankly of subsequent events. Visited by the ever-optimistic Lord Longford, Aitken emerged from the jaws of despair a chastened man. How this Old Etonian former Cabinet Minister on Mrs. Thatcher's inner circle managed to establish new relationships and lasting friendships with fellow prisoners is fascinating - so too is this account of how religious belief transformed his life and began to influence the life of others. Emerging from Bellmarsh Prison, with nothing but a black plastic sack of clothes, Aitken recounts how he was accepted at Wycliffe Hall Oxford to read theology and how this reconditioned his mind as well as his soul. Aitken has lost none of his charm, fluency and determination. But now these are used for greater purposes. He has found a new life and meaning to it. The authenticity of this new life is something which drives him on, and which readers of this entertaining new book will be able to judge for themselves.