PHILIP MARSDEN: Like Tolstoy\'s, Lesley Blanch\'s sense of history is ultimately convincing not because of any sweeping theses, but because of its particularities, the quirks of individuals and their personal narratives, their deluded ambitions, their vanities and passions. this profound and exhilarating book turns the struggle of the people of the Caucasus to remain independent of Russia into a unive. . .
THE GUARDIAN: Crammed with truly fabulous stories of fighting and love and violent death .
PHILIP MARSDEN: Like Tolstoy\'s, Lesley Blanch\'s sense of history is ultimately convincing not because of any sweeping theses, but because of its particularities, the quirks of individuals and their personal narratives, their deluded ambitions, their vanities and passions
