'Hopkirk has made the extraordinary field of Central-Asian espionage his own ... an enthralling story' Observer

Under the banner of a Holy War, masterminded in Berlin and unleashed from Constantinople, the Germans and the Turks set out in 1914 to foment violent revolutionary uprisings against the British in India and the Russians in Central Asia. It was a new and more sinister version of the old Great Game, with world domination as its ultimate aim. Here, told in epic detail and for the first time, is the true story behind John Buchan's classic wartime thriller Greenmantle, recounted through the adventures and misadventures of the secret agents and others who took part in it. It is an ominously topical tale today in view of the continuing turmoil in this volatile region where the Great Game has never really ceased.

"'Recreates with much verve and brilliance, the clandestine attempts by Britain's imperial rivals to subvert the British Empire in India'" - Guardian

"'Tells with great fluency, authority and narrative skill . . . a story which no single book has told before'" - Sunday Telegraph