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 MY FRIEND
THE MERCENARY
THE MERCENARY?
Nick Du Toit
James will be in SA and available for interviews from 22nd – 27th July
A first-hand account of the most infamous coup attempt in recent history
In a fly-blown bar in West Africa, war reporter James Brabazon found himself discussing military plans to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea with one of Africa’s most notorious mercenaries, Nick du Toit.
The Byzantine plot and its farcical execution led to Mark Thatcher, Simon Mann and a host of celebrated guns-for-hire falling victim to their own avaricious egos.
In a twist of fate, James Brabazon remained free to tell the story. His mercenary friend wasn’t as lucky. Nick du Toit was supposed to serve thirty - four years in Africa’s most notorious jail, Black Beach Prison, a sentence that James could have been serving alongside him. Fortuitously, Nick was released with Simon Mann in November 2009 after being given a pardon on ‘humanitarian grounds’ by the president they tried to depose, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Brabazon’s book is the story of a coup – and also the story of all coups. It is an exploration of the mercenary myth and a chapter of the story of modern Africa. It is a brutally honest and undeniably human account of a journey into the heart of what it takes to be a friend, a survivor and a journalist in the morally corrosive crucible of war.
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
James Brabazon is the only journalist to have published or broadcast about the Liberian Civil War from behind rebel lines. He has written for the Observer, the Independent and the Guardian, and his thirty international current affairs films have been broadcast by the BBC, Channel 4, CNN, SABC and the Discovery Channel. Currently James lectures on the ethics and practicalities of journalism in war zones.
Click on the following url to view a promotional video on My Friend the Mercenary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LldBQiqez8E
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