Mavericks: Empire, Oil, Revolution and the Forgotten Battle of World War One

'Wildly exciting' KATE ADIE 'Thoroughly gripping ... An action-packed tale' JUSTIN MAROZZI, THE TIMES 'Beautifully written' LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES 'Stimulating... entertaining and instructive' JULIAN EVANS, DAILY TELEGRAPH The forgotten story of a group of British mavericks who took on an impossible mission with a daring and fearless approach. As the First World War drew to a close and regimes began to collapse across Europe, British officials plotted a daring campaign to send an unlikely band of maverick soldiers, diplomats and spies to the chaotic region around the Caspian Sea. Their mission: to block the advance of the Turks, to hold back the rising Bolsheviks and prevent a Turkish-inspired jihad overwhelming India, and to secure the vital supply of oil from Baku. It was an almost impossible task, but Mavericks tells the gripping stories of the remarkable and enterprising characters at the centre of it all, who would be tested to the limit. There was Lionel Dunsterville, the inspiration for Kipling's Stalky and commander of the expedition; Ranald MacDonell, a Scottish aristocrat and diplomat who smuggled millions of roubles for the war effort; Edward Noel, a seemingly indestructible soldier who was held hostage for sixty-five days in horrific conditions; Toby Rawlinson, the younger brother of one of Britain's most senior generals and a brilliant inventor; and Reginald Teague-Jones, a spy who printed his own currency and would eventually emerge as an author at the age of ninety-nine. Drawing on personal diaries, memoirs and once-secret government archives, Mavericks brings to life a cast of eccentric heroes who survived against all odds to tell their extraordinary tales. This is a propulsive story of boldness and intrigue, set in a forgotten corner of the Great War where the rules were made to be broken.

About the Author :
Nick Higham is a writer and former journalist who spent nearly 30 years as a BBC correspondent. An accomplished television and radio performer, he is also a regular interviewer at literary festivals and is a former presenter of 'Meet the Author' on the BBC News Channel. His history of London's water, The Mercenary River, was published in 2022.

Review :
A hugely engaging tale of oil, Empire, espionage and vanity. Nick Higham tells the story of a forgotten campaign that is peppered with characters who seem to have sprung from the pages of a Boys Own Adventure. A reminder too, that history is filled with chancers and rogues and shaped by the unreliable memoirs that they leave behind Adventure, high jinks, violence: five eccentric British spies. A kaleidoscope of colourful lives, lived dangerously - and with style. A wildly exciting game Who better to send across Central Asia to secure oilfields at the height of the Russian Revolution than upper class mavericks whose early exploits had inspired Kipling? These unlikely characters wanted their exploits remembered, and in Nick Higham they have found the storyteller they deserve. He weaves a compelling story from unreliable memoirs. An account full of ripping yarns, but the author warns: 'Don't expect them all to be true' An absolute gem of a book - meticulously researched, and written with brio. It tells the astonishing story of six remarkable men - the Mavericks - who truly earned that title with their derring-do and adventures amid the twists and turns of the Battle of Baku. The men's courage and ingenuity in the face of often insurmountable odds is breath-taking, as is their appetite for risk amid the geopolitical quicksands of the Caucasus during the decline and fall of empires. They met with both triumph and disaster, and treated those two imposters just the same. I'm so glad Nick Higham has shone a light on these intrepid men, and their exploits in a region whose complexities continue to preoccupy and fascinate us today In Mavericks, Nick Higham tells one of the strangest stories of the First World War. He has done a great job teasing fact from fiction. I found Mavericks utterly absorbing I read this beautifully written book with a smile on my face. They don't make Brits like this anymore In this excellent book, Nick Higham gives his leading men space to breathe. All [the Mavericks] make great copy… The rattling good tale, of course, comes to a downbeat end [in defeat]. Lively and judicious Stimulating … Higham's story of the wild train ride back to Baku is worthy of a Buster Keaton movie … Higham's memorable opening account of a company of North Staffordshire infantry holding off a Turkish advance at a mud volcano is an impressive illustration of British training and discipline … [He] has written an entertaining and instructive account of how empires can be fatally weakened by overreach and arrogance All the ingredients of a rattling good yarn are here ... A thoroughly gripping, chaotic and often cinematic series of adventures ... An action-packed tale of imperial British braggadocio, bravery and blundering on a grand scale The stirring stories come thick and fast, as the former BBC correspondent Nick Higham describes the six-week long Battle of Baku – arguably the least remembered engagement of the First World War. Thrilling and sardonic by turns, the book weaves together the stories of half a dozen British imperial agents and adventurers as they furiously extemporise a future for the very edges of their overstretched empire Nick Higham makes a significant contribution [to First World War literature] by shedding light on an extraordinary and little-known episode around the Caspian Sea in the closing days of WWI. ... His journalistic abilities ensure that this is an engaging and well-paced read, enlivened by an extraordinary cast of characters whose unusual talents and skills made an impact within the geopolitical uncertainties of the end of the First World War