One of the United Nation’s smallest independent member states, an archipelago of some 30 near-desert islands nestles in a bay of the Arabian Gulf, close to Saudi Arabia. What is so special about this small nation, that it can play such a significant part in world history? 5,000 years ago, it was a vital trading post and supplier of sweet water to mariners plying their trade between Mesopotamia and the Indian sub-continent. It has always been strategically important: for the Portuguese and then the British, a well-placed base from which to protect their trade routes through the Indian Ocean; in modern times, perfectly located between the financial markets of the East and the West. As the first Arab state to strike Oil, which focused the mind of the collective West upon its importance wonderfully. But it is the bubbling, cosmopolitan romance of Bahrain which draws the modern visitor, and which has brought this book to life. Eleven photographers have turned their cameras on Bahrain, invited on a randomly chosen day to portray what they saw, as they saw it. For Bahrain, as the publishers say, "it was a unique proposition". For the photographers, even those who are long familiar with the country, it was certainly a novel project. This unique publication is a wonderful, independent collection of visions of a unique Arab state, unbiased by the single-minded view of one photographer; it’s a marvelous photographic essay on a country and its people.