Noel Brehony had a career as a diplomat after completing a PhD from Durham and post-doctoral research in the Middle East. He was in Aden in the early years of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and followed events there until unity in 1990. He is a Research Associate at the London Middle East Institute at SOAS and has been chairman of the Middle East Association and the Council for British Research in the Levant and President of the British Society of Middle East Studies. He is currently chairman of the British Yemeni Society.

• Yemen Divided: Independence and unityPreface and acknowledgementsIntroductionPart A - Winning independence and setting up the stateChapter One. From South Arabia to South YemenChapter Two. The National Liberation Front takes controlChapter Three. PRSY to PDRY via the Glorious Corrective MovePart B Moulding the state: The presidency of Salim Rubayya Ali 1969 to 1978The Chapter Four. Presidency, Party and GovernmentChapter Five. Internal and External Policies 1969-78Chapter Six Who leads - President or Party - and the downfall of RubayyaChapter Seven. Abd al-Fattah Ismail and the Yemeni Socialist PartyChapter Eight. Ali Nasir takes over the presidency, government and the partyChapter Nine. Policies in the Ali Nasir year: the economy, Yemen and foreign relationsPart C - The end of the state and the road to unityChapter Ten. The events of 13 January and the new PDRY leadershipChapter Eleven. The road to Unity and the changing domestic and international environmentChapter Twelve. Unity, disintegration and dominationPart D ConclusionsChapter Thirteen. Did PDRY fail as a state and is there any prospect of it being revived?

'Noel Brehony is a veteran commentator on that oxymoron of a place, known as modern Yemen, and he has produced a work that manages to be comprehensive and critical, but never disdainful.' Philip Robins, University of Oxford 'A timely account of an important period in Yemen's modern history.' Ginny Hill, Chatham House 'If you want to understand the southern dimension to the various conflicts that currently threaten to turn Yemen into a failed state, you could not find a better guide to the background and underlying issues than Noel Brehony.' Michael Crawford CMG, International Institute of Strategic Studies, London 'This is an important read, offering critical insights into the historical legacies and personalities that are currently shaping political instability and growing secessionist demands in the former South Yemen.' April Longley Alley, Ph.D., Independent Consultant and Yemen specialist 'This is a major contribution to the literature on South Arabia's political history, and an excellent read as well!' Gerd Nonneman, University of Exeter