MAVERICKS

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 D