The Green Ribbon Books

In the Public Interest: A devastating account of the Thatcher Government's involvement in the covert arms trade

Gerald James
Little, Brown and Company
1995

I briefly met Gerald James once at a meeting of MOJO, the group organised by former Birmingham Six member Paddy Hill. It was an incongruous setting in which to come across a former paratrooper and successful city accountant, but James had a fascinating tale to tell, the bones of the story which is told more fully in this book.

As a former member of the Monday Club, and friend of MI6's George Kennedy Young, James was by his own admission part of the Tory clique that brought Thatcher to power, the very group that would bring down his company ten years later. "On the face of it," he writes, "this is the great irony of my story."

Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror

Robert Young Pelton
Crown Publishers
2006

Adventure traveller Pelton turned his attention to the growing use of mercenaries by Western governments after running into a team of contractors on the Afghan-Pakistan border in 2003.

The result was this book, which combines firsthand reportage from war-zones across the globe with some very significant investigative journalism about private military companies like Aegis and Blackwater.

Pelton provides the best account yet of how Aegis won its controversial US Government contract in Iraq. He also cover Simon Mann's 'Wonga Coup' attempt in Equatorial Guinea, in a chapter which quotes some interesting sources on the British Government's role.

His on the-ground reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan provides a unique insight into the emerging private military culture. Yet without moralising, he raises profound questions about a phenomenon that seems to be here to stay.

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The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs and a Ruthless Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa

Adam Roberts
Profile Books
2006

In March 2004, Zimbabwean police impounded a jet carrying 64 mercenaries, led by former SAS officer Simon Mann. The event marked the unravelling of an extraordinary plot, backed by wealthy investors, to overthrow the Government of Equatorial Guinea, a tiny oil-rich nation in West Africa.

The Wonga Coup, by Adam Roberts is the first book to tell the story of the conspiracy, and the subsequent fallout.

If this sounds like the plot of a Frederick Forsyth novel, that’s because it is. Roberts reveals that Forsyth’s bestseller The Dogs of War , is based on the thriller writer’s real-life involvement with a failed 1973 coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.