Blood & Sand cover art

Blood & Sand

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Blood & Sand

By: Frank Gardner
Narrated by: Alistair Petrie
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £25.99

Buy Now for £25.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 On June 6th 2004, in a quiet suburb of Riyadh, BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner and cameraman Simon Cumbers were filming a programme on al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia when they were ambushed by Islamic gunmen. Simon was killed outright. Frank was shot and lay pleading for his life. A figure pumped four more bullets into his body at point blank range. Against all the odds, he survived. This is the remarkable account of his agonising journey to where he is today.© Frank Gardner; (P)Oakhill Publishing Ltd Middle East Saudi Arabia Africa Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking Iran Funny

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Road Taken cover art
A War of Empires cover art
Across an Angry Sea cover art
My Friend the Mercenary cover art
Leaving Alexandria cover art
The Shattered Lens cover art
Our Man in the Middle East cover art
Walking Free cover art
The Babes in the Woods Murders cover art
Walking Home cover art
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun cover art
Frontline cover art
Light and Shadow cover art

Critic reviews

"[Gardner's] terrible experience only makes his analysis all the more telling." ( Evening Standard)
"He paints his love affair with the Middle East in vivid terms. His struggle with paraplegia as a result of his wounds has not diminished his affection for the area." ( The Herald)
All stars
Most relevant
An immensely enjoyable listen. Frank, a feature of our TV news here in the UK, gives an interesting account of his early life, education and travels in the near east and north Africa, moving on to his banking career in Bahrain, before becoming a freelance journalist, BBC World journalist and eventually assuming his current role as BBC Security Correspondent.

If you have seen Frank on the TV you will be aware that he has a military bearing; indeed, this is because he has had a military career in the Army Reserve. Strangely, there is not one mention of this as far as I recall in the whole book.

The account of his brutal shooting in Riyadh and being left for dead (which the book opens with) and of his recovery and rehabilitation (which the book ends with) is very moving and the honesty of his attitude towards it refreshing. He is not traumatised by being shot (in a modern world where many are increasingly 'traumatised' by the slightest thing) but he rails against his disability and refuses for a long time to accept the severity of his condition.

Perhaps slightly disappointing though is his analysis (or lack of it) of what was going on with al-Qaeda with its shadowy CIA funded past and (contemporary with his shooting) Saudi funded present. Perhaps he is in a difficult position as he needs visas for his job and to be able to secure interviews but this is an area regrettably unexplored in his book.

Nevertheless, a brave man who has lived a fascinating life (thus far) and who is able to write about it with panache.

Interesting and Moving

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
how can you not love the cut of this man's jib?! enlightening, informative, shocking, funny, brave, heartfelt and utterly inspirational. I've seen him talk and he has such charisma - this transcends from the page too. it's a great book and the narrator is alsovery good . Buy it and you'll not regret a minute.

faultless

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Insightful, informative and inspirational. His depictions of the Middle East are so rich. A fascinating insight into the Arab culture. A remarkable story of recovery and overcoming great adversity.

Great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really enjoyed the view into Frank's life and his insights into Arabic life. The long lead in from his early years to the tragedy that changed his life built up a great picture. The culmination of all the stories was captivating and left me wanting to know more about this other world. To give colour to the stories a fair number of names dropped in here and there. However, if you don't recognise them already they will not stay with you so well in a talking book as they do when reading on the page. The end tailed off rather suddenly leaving me (and I guess him) uncertain about his future.

Loved hearing about his other world.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Written with undeniable grace, style and resiliency, this is an exceedingly interesting memoir of an engaging personality.

The author doesn't come from an underprivileged background, which I assume is the basis for some of the criticism that has come his way. Yet this a petty concern and does nothing to explain the character & fortitude of this man.

It must be a excruciatingly arduous and challenging task to forge something bright and useful from material so base & painful that it would be the finish of most of us and then to fill it full of life.

Gardner’s Guys & Style Are Admirable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews