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The Helen Smith Story (Fontana paperbacks)

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Paul Foot is the credited writer on the website, but on thecover Foot shares credit with Ron Smith, Helen Smith's father. Without him, none of the details and cover ups concerning the case would have been released.

Foot and Smith give a blow by blow account of the mysterious death of Helen Smith, a British Nurse who was working in a private hospital in Jeddah. Foot was a reporter for the Daily Mirror and Private Eye who was initially put off by Ron Smith's insistence of a British/Saudi cover up concerning his daughter's death.

The two authors put forward a good case showing that the British and Saudi authorities were covering something up concerning Helen's Smith death. One thing is certain, her death was not due to accidentally falling off the balcony with a friend. The official reason that was endorsed by the Foreign Office.

The book also exposes the bored expat. life that most western citizens had while living in Saudi Arabia. Divisions of class seem to become even more apparent here, especially when it came to Ron Smith trying to get the Foreign Office and the UK Embassy in Saudi Arabia to release more details of his daughter's death. This includes Smith secretly recording conversations with diplomats who patronised and lied to him during his visits to Arabia.

The Helen Smith case is now best known because her body has still not been buried. Instead she is still stored in a morturary in Yorkshire while her father still hopes for a re-opening of the case. During the 1980's he was promised by then Labour leader, Michael Foot, that should they get in power, there would be a investigation on Helen Smith's death. There seems to have been no response from Tony Blair's goverment.

IN MAY 1979 RON SMITH, A FORMER LEEDS POLICEMAN, RECEIVED A PHONE-CALL TO SAY HIS 23YO DAUGHTER HELEN, A NURSE WORKING IN SAUDI ARABIA, WAS DEAD. SHE HAD FALLEN BY ACCIDENT, THE BRITISH FOREIGN OFFICE TOLD HIM, FROM A SIXTH-FLOOR BALCONY DURING A PARTY GIVEN BY A BRITISH COUPLE, THE ARNOTS.

BUT ON TWO TRIPS TO JEDDAH, AND AFTER THREE POST-MORTEMS ON HIS DAUGHTER'S BODY, MUCH MORE EXPLANATION THAN SUSTAINED IT. AS TIME WENT ON, RON SMITH BECAME MORE AND MORE CERTAIN THAT HELEN HAD BEEN MURDERED.

THIS IS THE STORY OF RON SMITH'S SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT HIS DAUGHTER, ABOUT HIS PERSISTANT FIGHT WITH OFFICIALDOM BOTH IN UK AND SAUDI ARABIA. IT SHOWS HOW THE SIMPLE PRIORITIES OF HIS SEARCH BECAME EMBROILED IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, AND WERE DEFLECTED BY THEM.