Includes bibliographical references.

“If you want to understand what really happened, you absolutely have to read this book

Johan Simpson”—cover page.

Contents: List of illustrations—Map of Afghanistan—Map of Kabul—Tribute to the fallen—Preface—Part I : beginnings—1. An offer I couldn’t reguse—2. First impressions—3. Helmandshire—4. ‘A Marathon rather than a sprint’—5. Breather break—Part II : hope over experience—6. A king’s funeral—7. The spreading virus—8. The great game-round four—9. Hooked on drugs—10. Coping in Kabul—11. Highland fling : Karzai in Scotland—12. Mr. Brown comes to town—Part III : aginst an ebbing tide—13. Reversal of fortune—14. ‘we are winning-only it doesn’t feel like it’—15. The Karzai conundrum—16. Cracking on in Helmand—17. Afghan attitudes—18. Waiting for Obama—Part IV : tactics without strategy : one last heave—19. Biden and beyond—20. Au revoir Afghanistan—21 Richard Holbrooke’s Flying Circus—22. Where’s dick?—Part V : recessional—23. Embassy encore—24. Untying the knot—25. Three lessons learned—26. Back to the future—Acknowledgements—Abbreviations—Index.