Paul Holden is a profession historian and it is fitting that someone in his profession writes about the Arms Deal since it seems likely that, under the new political regime, that this infamous theft of taxpayers money will be consigned to the footnotes of history.

But even if the Arms Deal and all the bribery and corruption associated with it is swept under the carpet, it will leave such a big lump we will be tripping over it for decades to come, try to ignore it as we might.

And while it molders, removed from sight but still very much in view, there will always be some honestly ignorant person to proclaim the obvious - “But the Emperor has no clothes!”

Holden’s book is simply excellent: stylishly and engagingly written, it prefaces each chapter with shaded blocks informing the reader “What’s in this Chapter?” and “key Dates for this Chapter” making it a wonderful flip-through reference.

With a born teacher’s instinct for pin-pointing, encapsulating and summarizing even the most dryly complex of politico-economic sagas, Holden gives us a plethora of easy-to-understand tables explaining, amongst other things, what we actually bought, and what we ended up paying.

For example, by the end of the year 2008, we will have paid R43 Billion on the arms deal, compared with R4 Billion on the construction of low-cost housing.

Was there a cover-up? If so, who was involved and what have the consequences been? The first casualty was Tony Yengeni, who was rapidly rehabilitated after an insultingly brief period of incarceration, and then there’s Shabir Shaik, languishing in 5 star luxury in a private hospital at the tax payers expense…

Joe Modise, who allegedly set the whole deal up, is dead, while Jacob Zuma, the most heavily implicated of the lot, is President of the ANC and set to be president of the country. The house of cards also involves Chippy Shaik, Thabo Mbeki, Mac Maharaj, Tony Georgiades, Terror Lekota and other senior members of the legal, business and political communities.

Appendices, extensive notes and a list of recommended reading follows the text: fluent, infectiously readable and eminently informative, The Arms Deal in Your Pocket should be compulsory reading for all matriculants and journalists.

However – and it is a huge however – the book is afflicted with a fatal flaw: a work of nonfiction, no matter how reliable and erudite, needs an index like a bird needs wings if it is ever to fly. Without an index, its value is halved.

Invariably, the authors cannot be blamed for this lack – it is the greedy publishers who, it seems, are prepared to pay for a text but not for the key to that text, and cutting printing costs by doing away with indices.

Come on Jonathan Ball – don’t be so short sighted! Paul Holden has produced a marvelous, zippily-written, provocative and informative account of the arms deal. It just needs an index to make it perfect! ( )