{"product_id":"9781526677013-retail-mavericks-empire-oil-revolution-and-the-forgotten-battle-of-world","title":"Mavericks: Empire, Oil, Revolution and the Forgotten Battle of World","description":"'Wildly exciting'  KATE ADIE 'Thoroughly gripping ... An action-packed tale'  JUSTIN MAROZZI,  THE TIMES ' Beautifully written'  LOUIS DE BERNIERES ' 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.","brand":"Book Grocer","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49281369112795,"sku":"9781526677013-RETAIL","price":38.24,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/3c8c58a1-a441-41a4-894c-d1e0de252519.jpg?v=1789125035","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/9781526677013-retail-mavericks-empire-oil-revolution-and-the-forgotten-battle-of-world","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}