One day in England in 1936, a sixteen-year-old schoolboy riding steeplechase gets a message that his father, King Fouad I of Egypt has died. Instantly, the young prince, thereafter known as King Farouk, is swept upon the tumultuous world stage of pre-WWII. This biography tells the story of a young ruler who assumes the throne of a country struggling to rise on its own youthful legs of independence. Farouk must take up the mantle of his father and move his country into the twentieth century socially, economically, and politically. To add to this ominous task, he must also struggle with the decisions of which path his government will follow and what side it will choose as the Allied and Axis powers form their own alliances. With the strategic jewel of the Suez Canal in his backyard, he is the darling of both sides and endures great pressure while he attempts to remove Egypt from the mindset of colonialism. This is an eye-opening account of scenes from WWII that do not appear on modern history channels. It is a story that needs to be understood in order to grasp today’s modern conflicts both in the Middle East and globally.