Nick Higham

We are used to hearing extraordinary stories of bravery, heroism and selflessness from the Second World War, but in Mavericks, Nick Higham – known to many from his 30 years as a BBC correspondent – has unearthed a forgotten story of a group of British mavericks who took on an impossible mission with a daring and fearless approach towards the end of the ‘Great War’..

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 overwhelmingIndia, and – in a ghostly pre-echo of a current story - to secure the vital supply of oil from Baku.

‘Wildly exciting’ Kate Adie