Mavericks

'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 - and survived against all odds to tell their extraordinary tales. 1918. The First World War is drawing to a close and regimes are collapsing across Europe. Amid the chaos, British officials plot a daring campaign to send an unlikely band of soldiers, diplomats and spies to the volatile shores of the Caspian Sea. Their mission: stop the advancing Turks, hold back the Bolsheviks and secure the vital supply of oil from Baku. Drawing on personal diaries, memoirs and once-secret government archives, Mavericks is a page-turning story of boldness and intrigue, set in a forgotten corner of the Great War where rules were made to be broken.

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.