At the age of only 36 Sir Mark Sykes was signatory to the Sykes-Picot agreement one of the most reviled treaties of modern times A century later Christopher Sykes' lively biography of his grandfather reassesses his life & work & the political instability & violence in the Middle East attributed to it The Sykes-Picot agreement was drawn by the eponymous British & French diplomats in 1916 to determine the divideof the collapsing empire in the event of an allied victory in World War I Excluding Arab involvement it negated theirearlier guarantee of independence made by the British -and controversy has raged around it ever since But who was Mark Sykes? A century on Christopher Simon Sykes reveals new facetsof a misremembered diplomatic giant Using previouslyundisclosed family letters & cartoons by his grandfatherhe delivers a comprehensive & humbling account of the man behind one of the most impactful policies in the Middle East