children before separating in 2004. Murray married Nadira Alieva, an Uzbek woman, on 6 May 2009. They have two sons. He is a friend of Peter Oborne, who described him as "one of the greatest truth-tellers of our time" and said that "Apart from Julian Assange, no one has done more to expose coalition crimes during the War on Terror." Works Murder in Samarkand Murray's book Murder in Samarkand – A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror (2006) is a memoir about his time as an ambassador. In December 2005, Murray published confidential memos on his website, which had been officially removed from the text when Murder in Samarkand was submitted for checking. He had initially acceded to these cuts. According to Murray, the British government "refused to clear it" uncut. The Foreign Office, after publication was announced, "said that they wouldn't seek to prevent publication but that they may act against it later". The British government claimed copyright over the documents in July 2006, saying they were "damaging to the national interest" and demanding they be removed. In response, Murray deleted some of the material. Murray's biography of Alexander Burnes, first published in 2016, was reviewed favourably in a number of academic journals, including the historical and area studies journals Asian Affairs and Central Asian Survey. Other books Awards January 2006: the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence, in recognition of his campaigning work on torture and human rights November 2006: the Premio Alta Qualità della Città di Bologna Murray has turned down three honours from Queen Elizabeth, saying letters after his name are "not his thing". Portrayals in fiction Murray's life featured in a show by Nadira Alieva, The British Ambassador's Bellydancer, initially presented in 2007 at the Arcola Theatre in Hackney, later moving to London's West End. Robin Soans used an interview with Murray and Alieva as a character for his Verbatim style play Talking to Terrorists which had a successful run at the Royal Court Theatre and has since been produced worldwide. Soans used Murray again as a verbatim character in his later play Life After Scandal in which Murray "tells of how scandal was used against him when the government wanted to undermine his claims about humanitarian disasters". On 20 February 2010 BBC Radio Four broadcast a radio play Murder in Samarkand, written by Sir David Hare and directed