This is a tremendously readable and enjoyable book ... She aims to retell the story in a thrilling contemporary style for a generation of readers, and in this she succeeds. Most historians will have cause to envy her narrative ability. -- Alex von Tunzelmann * The New York Times Book Review * A gripping story [that] casts an interestingly oblique light on Churchill's personality, and on a traumatic war. -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * Observer * Using many unpublished sources, she weaves into a nail-biting escape story a larger picture of Africa at the cusp of the 20th century. Her eye for humanising detail, her vivid topographical descriptions and her keen awareness of the realities (and surrealities) of war come together in a truly fascinating book. -- Lucy Lethbridge * Financial Times * Completely engrossing -- Andrew Roberts