Said K. Aburish was born in the biblical village of Bethany near Jerusalem in 1935. One of his grandfathers was a judge of the Islamic Court and lecturer at the the Arab College. The other was village headman. His father was correspondent for The Daily Mail, New York Times, Newsweek and Time.

Said became a United States citizen in 1958 and his writing began with Radio Free Europe where he served as a reporter in lieu of his US Army service. Later he became a correspondent for The Daily Mail, a tractor salesman and senior vice-president of Ted Bates advertising agency. For twelve years he consulted on Middle East business and was an advisor to the Iraqi government. (He resigned his post in protest when the Iraqis used chemical weapons and broke the story of Saddam's unconventional weapons program in an article with The Observer.)

In 1983 Said returned to full time writing. He has produced eleven books. Some have been translated into several languages. His articles have appeared in The Sunday Times, Observer, Mail on Sunday, Washington Post, Spectator, Liberation, La Vanguardia, LA Times, Jolland-Posten and in Al Quds where he was a columnist for three years.

A varied cultural background had induced Said to describe himself as cultural schizoid and he is writing his memoirs along this theme; provisionally titled: "The Wounds of Change".

Said lives in Nice, France. His ambition is to write the definitive study of the destructive influence of oil on Arab character and culture.

His latest book, "Nasser, The Last Arab", was launched on 10 April 2004. "Since the death of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1970 there has been no ideology to capture the imagination of the Arab world except Islamic fundamentalism. Any sense of completely secular Arab states ended with him and what we see happening today in the Middle East is a direct result of Western opposition to his strategies and ideals.

Nasser is a fascinating figure fraught with dilemmas. With the CIA continually trying to undermine him, Nasser threw his lot in with the Soviet Union, even though he was fervently anti-Communist. Nasser wanted to build up a military on par with Israel's, but didn't want either the '56 or '67 wars. This was a man who was a dictator, but also a popular leader. His ideology appealed to most of the Arab people and bound them together. While he was alive, there was a brief chance of actual Arab unity producing common, honest, and incorruptible governments throughout the region.

More than ever, the Arab world is anti-Western and teetering on disaster. This account of Nasser's life is tantamount to explaining whether the interests of the West and the Arab world are reconcilable. Nasser's ambitions came to an end when the West opposed him. A continuation of the Arabs' inherent opposition to the West and Israel, the Islamic fire this time is proving much harder to contain."