King Husayn's biographies

There is yet another review of Avi Shlaim's biography. Let me tell you this: I have an even lower opinion of the sexist, gossipy, and hagiographic biography by Shlaim having read the biography by Nigel Ashton. Ashton's is far more serious and far more scholarly although it also is quite uncritical of Husayn. And Ashton reveals that Husayn's contacts with Israel started earlier than suggested by Shlaim because the latter assumed that Husayn had one track of contacts with Israel: through his physician in London. Husayn's earliest contacts were through the Mossad. But both are so defensive and even propagandistic about Husayn that they had to justify his crimes, oppression, betrayals, lies, and even preventing his first wife from seeing her own daughter for more than 6 or seven long years. And Ashton had done his homework in setting the story of Husayn in the context of Arab politics although he does not know Arabic and stuck to English language sources. But some parts of Ashton are comical: he argued that Husayn and Nasser "competed" for regional leadership and that both were charismatic, or equally charismatic. That was a funny part to read, I have to say. The story of the succession of Husayn is told in both books but is incomplete in both books. In Ashton's book, `Adnan Abu `Awdah comes across as braggart and fabricator who exaggerates his role. But if you are to read one of the two, read Ashton's. It is more serious and more academic. Also, Ashton makes a good point: that all biographies and studies of Husayn ignore a major chapter of his life: his strong and solid alliance and friendship with Saddam Husayn. I have many other specific comments and criticisms of Ashton's biography but alas there is no time. What am I to do?