By God's Will: Portrait of the Sultan of Brunei

The Sultan of Brunei has been labelled 'the richest man in the world', and most journalists have confined their interest to the Sultan's alleged spending habits. Yet few have visited his kingdom on the coast of Borneo and fewer still have actually met him. Lord Chalfont's frequent visits to Brunei have enabled him to go beyond the cliches and the gossip to attempt the first serious analysis of the Sultan as ruler and statesman. He is the first Western biographer to have been granted access to the Sultan and to some of his closest friends and advisers. Modern Brunei, a prosperous, oil-rich kingdom with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, is a land where high technology coexists with an ancient culture and strict religious observance. In conversation with the Sultan Lord Chalfont has not only addressed many controversial issues, but has explored the Sultan's own view of his role as an Islamic monarch in the rapidly developing Asia-Pacific region. He has drawn on his long experience of international affairs to assess the Sultan's achievements and his future plans for the country which he has done so much to develop. Lord Chalfont's portrait shows, above all, that the real facts about the Sultan of Brunei and his country are more fascinating - and in their way more dramatic - than any number of reports in the Western press.