Between Two Rivers: A Story of Life, Love and Marriage from an English Woman in Baghdad

An honest, funny, and moving memoir of a young woman from England transplanted into another culture by love, Between Two Rivers details the experience of vibrant 1960s Baghdad life and the city’s complex social customs, pre-Saddam. When Dorothy set off on a night out with her sister, she never dreamed it would lead to a car journey to Baghdad; but that night she met a dark, mysterious stranger—an Iraqi student named Zane—and almost before she knew it they were married and driving to Baghdad in a borrowed car with their baby daughter. They moved into a house in the suburbs with Zane’s family, throwing Dorothy into the maelstrom of Iraqi culture: letters could take weeks to arrive, there were no mobile phones or computers, and there was no direct dial facility to the UK—she might as well have been living on the moon.

Dorothy al Khafaji was born in Somerset and trained at the British Council in Baghdad to teach TEFL. Upon return to the UK she received a PGCE from the University of Surrey and taught in language schools. She moved to Wales to start a family business, which she still manages.