«Coruscating reportage... Fergusson is a great journalist, and such truly brilliant investigative work offers the seeds, the suggestions of remedies for the contagion beneath the reporter’s microscope.»

Roger Hutchinson, Scotsman

«Riveting ... Fergusson rounds out this invaluable work by noting the glimmers of hope appearing»

Publishers Weekly

«[A] fine book... With his usual insouciant courage – for this country is not for the faint-hearted – Fergusson takes us on an invigorating journey through Somali life and history... wide-ranging and fascinating.»

Frank Ledwidge, RUSI journal

«If you meet James Fergusson on your travels, look out, you are most definitely in the wrong place. The writer has earned something of a reputation as a specialist on the dark side of the troubled world in which we live. From the Balkans to Afghanistan and the modern-day hell that is sub-Saharan Africa, the adventurous journalist and best-selling author has put his life on the line to become a global authority on Al Qaeda, the Taliban, boy soldiers in Somalia - and the worst aspects of human behaviour in the most inhospitable and dangerous regions.»

Jim McBeth, Daily Mail

«This book is one of the most detailed and illuminating books I have ever read. Comprehensive, detailed, and filled with information, this is an excellent read. Read this book.»

Army Rumour Service (ARRSE)

«One of the best narratives of discovery I have read for years. The sense of place is acute, the characters and landscapes vivid ... rivals Ryszard Kapuscinski and Robert Byron at their best.»

Robert Fox, Evening Standard

«What [Fergusson] has done, with heroic tenacity and no little courage, is to spend much of the last two years wandering from one end of the country to the other, interviewing politicians and presidents, fighters and pirates, foreign advisers and security guards, and above all scores of ordinary Somalis, whose lives have been destroyed by 20 years of carnage and whose tales he eloquently recounts. An elegant writer, with a scholarly understanding of history, he brings to terrible light the catastrophe that is Somalia.»

Caroline Moorehead, The Spectator

«Fergusson's book is an honest, illuminating and surprisingly funny account of his travels through a lawless land in which the lure of terrorism all too often proves irresistible.»

Mail on Sunday

«A perceptive and engaging account.»

Guardian

«Excellent.»

Mark Doyle, Observer

«Exceptional... Fergusson vividly recounts the grotesque horrors of the endless war in Somalia while leavening his account with the gallows humor of some of the war’s participants.»

Nicolas van de Walle, Foreign Affairs magazine

«Essential reading for those who seek to counter the menace. With ingenuity and no little courage he has travelled far and wide, within Somalia and among the Somali diaspora in Britain and America, delving into the soul of a ravaged community.»

The Economist