De-mining of War zones

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Conway, a former British Army officer, now working for the HALO trust,  a mine-clearing charity, details about the working of mines and explosives and how to deploy them when defending a fortified position.

Conway displays his real life experience de-mining war zones to excellent use, as the narrative goes from Assad’s dungeons in Syria through Iraq, a refugee camp in Jordan, Westminster’s corridor of power and the back streets of London’s East End, while explaining how we fight “war on terror”.

The scene setting feels  a sense of danger and unsettling, but the protagonist, Jude, an MI6 officer, is brave and engaging.

Simon Conway has cleared landmines and other debris of war across the world and as a Co-Chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition he successfully campaigned to achieve an international ban on cluster bombs. He lives in Glasgow with his wife, the journalist and broadcaster Sarah Smith.

“Jude comes up out of the depths of Old Street Station and heads east towards Shoreditch and walks down Rivington Street the mass of people  starts to thicken, drinkers and vapers spilling out on to the cobbles from the pubs and restaurants. He stops off for a pint of semi-skimmed from a Bengali corner shop and then a pot of Vietnamese beef Pho from boat people. Jude gets a glimpse of animal fear, the desperate mental struggle of a man to keep himself together in the face of imminent death. I’m doing this for Allah, for his glory. I am happy to give up my life” in Breaking the Walls.

The Stranger by Simon Conway, Hodder and Stoughton £16.99.