Visit Bahrain, Baghdad and the restored Babylon, walk through the Friday Souk, see the Kuwait Towers up close, sit for a while in the gardens of the Grand Mosque and spend time in a dark and inviting coffee house. Listen to Bloodshot Jim and the story of his loss, ride the night train with Major Adnan and his one thousand men and read an eyewitness account of cold-blooded murder. Meet Slippery Sam, The Arrow and The Platypus, Ned O'Brien and his bits of chalk, David the Waiter and Con the Monk, Big John Manzoni, Cassandra Franklin and Douglas Jay, Patrick ‘The Omniscient One’ Alexander and Nickel Ass and his colts. They’re all here, the crafty and the open, the wise and silly, the pompous and the unassuming, the considerate and the careless, and John Flanagan’s a born storyteller.