Main description:

A young, devil-may-care Englishman, determined to report on the Soviet war and make a name for himself, makes a fateful commitment to a swashbuckling Afghan guerrilla commander. Not only will he go inside the capital secretly and live in the network of safe houses run by the resistance, he will travel around the city in a Soviet Army jeep, dressed as a Russian officer.

Waiting in the mountain camp, from where Niazuldin's band of fighters lived and planned their hit-and-run attacks on Soviet troops, Ed Gorman discovers what it means to experience combat with men whose only interest is to be killed or martyred.

'I have never read anything that so fully and perfectly captured the personal experience and the personal aftermath of war. This is a brave book. Ed Gorman has a lonely struggle, but, excellent reporter that he is, he shows us how the struggle is not his alone.' - PJ O'Rourke

'By turns gripping, enlightening and deeply moving, Ed Gorman's story should be required reading for any editor in charge of sending journalists into harm's way.' - Matthew Green, author of Aftershock

'Few autobiographies are page-turners. Ed Gorman's is. I cannot recommend this well crafted, exciting yet moving book too much.'- General The Lord Richards of Herstmonceux GCB CBE DSO, author of Taking Command