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In January 2002, weeks after the fall of the Taliban, Rory Stewart set out on foot from Herat to Kabul in midwinter, through the snowbound mountains of central Afghanistan. It was the last stage of a walk across Asia he had begun in 2000, and for most of it his only companion was a large, toothless dog he named Babur, after the Mughal emperor whose route he followed. Born in Hong Kong in 1973, Stewart has since been a deputy governor in southern Iraq, the founder of a charity in Kabul, a Harvard professor, a Conservative MP and cabinet minister, and co-host of the podcast The Rest Is Politics. His books follow those jobs, one place at a time. This guide covers his six key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 6 key books · 2004–2025 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Rory Stewart’s best-known book is The Places in Between (2004), his account of walking across Afghanistan, which won the Ondaatje Prize. His other books are Occupational Hazards (2006), Can Intervention Work? (2011, with Gerald Knaus), The Marches (2016), Politics on the Edge (2023) and Middleland (2025). Start with The Places in Between; if you came to him through the podcast, Politics on the Edge is his inside account of Westminster.
Where to Start with Rory Stewart
If you want his defining book
→ The Places in Between (2004) — the winter walk across Afghanistan.
If you want what happened after the invasion of Iraq
→ Occupational Hazards (2006) — a year as deputy governor in the marshes.
If you want British politics from the inside
→ Politics on the Edge (2023) — nine years as an MP and minister.
If you want walking closer to home
→ The Marches (2016) — the English–Scottish border, with his father.
6 Rory Stewart Books, in Order
The Places in Between
Stewart walks from Herat to Kabul through central Afghanistan in the winter of 2002, along the route the emperor Babur took in the sixteenth century, sleeping in village houses and crossing passes deep in snow. He starts with two armed guards; for most of the way his companion is the dog Babur. It won the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize in 2005, was a New York Times bestseller, and was dramatised for BBC Radio 4 in 2007.
Occupational Hazards
After the 2003 invasion Stewart, then thirty, was sent by the Coalition to Maysan province in southern Iraq as deputy governor, and later to Dhi Qar as senior adviser. The book covers that year: tribal sheikhs, political parties and militias, and the reconstruction projects he was meant to run. In the US it is called The Prince of the Marshes. Stephen Brown adapted it for the stage at Hampstead Theatre in 2017.
Can Intervention Work?
Two linked essays in Norton’s Global Ethics Series. Stewart writes about the Western intervention in Afghanistan, Gerald Knaus about the decade of intervention in Bosnia, which he presents as a success. Together they argue that intervention can work when its goals are narrow and local, and that “nation-building under fire”, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, does not.
The Marches
Stewart walks the borderland between England and Scotland, along Hadrian’s Wall and beyond, partly in the company of his elderly father Brian, a former colonial officer in Malaya, and looks for the lost “Middleland” that once lay between the two countries. It was a Sunday Times top-ten bestseller and won the Hunter Davies Lakeland Book of the Year. The US edition is subtitled A Borderland Journey Between England and Scotland.
Politics on the Edge
His account of nine years as MP for Penrith and The Border: ministerial posts in the environment department, international development, Africa and prisons, a few weeks as Secretary of State for International Development in 2019, his run for the Conservative leadership that summer, and the loss of the whip over Brexit. It went straight to number one in the Sunday Times bestseller list. In the US it is called How Not to Be a Politician.
Middleland
The fortnightly columns Stewart wrote for the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald between 2009 and 2019, while he was the local MP, each followed by a short postscript. They range from walks through the Eden valley and Roman history to wind turbines, rural broadband and the village of Crosby Ravensworth, where residents built affordable housing and ran their pub as a co-operative.
In What Order to Read Rory Stewart
There is no series, so you can start anywhere. Publication order does follow his life closely, though: Afghanistan in 2002, Iraq in 2003–04, the lessons he drew from both, then his years in Cumbria and at Westminster. Reading The Places in Between before Occupational Hazards shows how the walker became the official.
The Marches and Middleland belong together: both come out of his constituency on the English–Scottish border and the idea of a “Middleland” between the two countries. Read Politics on the Edge for the same years seen from Westminster.
A reading path
1. The Places in Between (2004)
2. Occupational Hazards (2006)
3. Can Intervention Work? (2011)
4. The Marches (2016)
5. Politics on the Edge (2023)
The years · 1973–2025
Quick facts about Rory Stewart
- Known for
- Walking across Afghanistan in the winter of 2002 and writing about it in The Places in Between, and later his frank account of British politics as a former cabinet minister.
- 1973
- Born in Hong Kong
- 2010
- Elected MP for Penrith and The Border
- 2025
- Middleland
- Born
- 3 January 1973, Hong Kong
- Education
- Eton College; Balliol College, Oxford
- Worked
- Foreign Office; Coalition official in Iraq (2003–04); Turquoise Mountain, Kabul; Harvard Kennedy School; Yale
- Politics
- MP for Penrith and The Border, 2010–2019; Secretary of State for International Development, 2019
- Honours
- OBE (2004); Ondaatje Prize (2005); Livingstone Medal (2009)
- Podcast
- Co-host of The Rest Is Politics with Alastair Campbell since 2022
The red mark is 2004: The Places in Between, his account of the walk across Afghanistan.
How Rory Stewart Writes: Learning a Place on Foot
Stewart’s method is to walk. He crossed Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal on foot between 2000 and 2002, staying each night with whoever would take him in, and he walked his Cumbrian constituency the same way. The books are built from those encounters: what a village headman, a militia leader or a hill farmer actually says, recorded with little comment.
The second thread is history. In The Places in Between he follows the memoirs of the emperor Babur; The Marches reads the border through Roman forts and medieval wars. He uses the past to show how little outsiders understand, which is also the argument of Occupational Hazards and Can Intervention Work?: policy made in capitals fails against local loyalties, geography and memory.
He often writes against himself. The Iraq book records the mistakes of the occupation he served, and Politics on the Edge describes the party and the government he belonged to with open dismay. For writers who travel and report the same way, see Authors like Rory Stewart.
Watch
Rory Stewart on Conversations with History
Harry Kreisler talks with Stewart, then an MP, for UC Berkeley’s Conversations with History about his work as diplomat, walker, governor in Iraq and parliamentarian, and why Western interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan went wrong.
Frequently asked questions about Rory Stewart’s books
How many books has Rory Stewart written?
Six: The Places in Between (2004), Occupational Hazards (2006), Can Intervention Work? (2011, co-written with Gerald Knaus), The Marches (2016), Politics on the Edge (2023) and Middleland (2025).
What are Rory Stewart’s books in order?
The Places in Between (2004), Occupational Hazards (2006), Can Intervention Work? (2011), The Marches (2016), Politics on the Edge (2023) and Middleland (2025).
Where should I start with Rory Stewart?
With The Places in Between (2004), his account of walking across Afghanistan in 2002. If you know him from The Rest Is Politics, Politics on the Edge (2023) covers the years he talks about on the podcast.
What is Rory Stewart’s most famous book?
The Places in Between. It won the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize in 2005, spent weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was dramatised for BBC Radio 4. Politics on the Edge went straight to number one in the Sunday Times list in 2023.
Did Rory Stewart really walk across Afghanistan alone?
Largely. In January 2002 he walked from Herat to Kabul through central Afghanistan. He set out with two armed guards, but for most of the walk his only companion was a dog he named Babur, and he relied on villagers to give him a place to sleep. It was the last stage of a walk across Asia that began in 2000.
Why are some Rory Stewart books published under different titles?
His US publishers retitled two of them. Occupational Hazards is The Prince of the Marshes in the US, and Politics on the Edge is How Not to Be a Politician. The Marches has a different subtitle in each country.
What is Politics on the Edge about?
His nine years as MP for Penrith and The Border (2010–2019): his ministerial posts, his short time in the cabinet as Secretary of State for International Development in 2019, his run for the Conservative leadership, and how he lost the party whip over Brexit and left Parliament.
Has The Places in Between been adapted?
It was dramatised as a BBC Radio 4 afternoon play in 2007. His Iraq book, Occupational Hazards, was adapted for the stage by Stephen Brown at Hampstead Theatre in 2017.
Was Rory Stewart a spy?
It has long been rumoured that he worked for MI6. Stewart says he did not work for MI6 while he was a diplomat, and has pointed out that the Official Secrets Act would stop him confirming it either way. Publicly he served in the Foreign Office in Indonesia and Montenegro before his walk across Asia.
What does Rory Stewart do now?
He co-hosts the podcast The Rest Is Politics with Alastair Campbell, launched in 2022, and has taught at Yale’s Jackson School of Global Affairs. He left Parliament in 2019 after losing the Conservative whip, and briefly ran as an independent for Mayor of London before withdrawing in 2020.
Footnotes
- Rory Stewart — Wikipedia
- The Places in Between — Wikipedia
- Occupational Hazards — Wikipedia
- The Marches — Kirkus Reviews
- Middleland: Rory Stewart’s essay collection is a ‘triumph’ — The Week
- Rory Stewart: The Places in Between — UC Berkeley Institute of International Studies
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“There was, I said, a magic in leaving a line of footprints stretching across Asia.”
— Rory Stewart, The Places in Between (2004)
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