Mavericks

Join author Nick Higham as he tells the story of an eccentric group of men tasked with an impossible mission in a forgotten theatre of the First World War.

When Russia crashed out of the First World War following the Revolution in 1917, Britain was desperate to prevent the oil-rich port of Baku on the Caspian Sea from falling into enemy hands. The problem: Baku was hundreds of miles from the nearest British army and there were few soldiers to spare.

Officials with limited knowledge of the Caucasus region concocted a ramshackle plan involving a small group of fearless, and often reckless, men whose resourcefulness would be tested to the limit. 

Their leader was a charismatic career soldier, Lionel Dunsterville, who had been the model for one of Rudyard Kipling’s most popular characters. The rest of the group included diplomats, inventors and spies.

Nick Higham tells the little-known story of Dunsterforce, the Battle of Baku and the legacy of this daring mission.

About the speaker

Nick Higham is a writer and former journalist who spent nearly 30 years as a BBC correspondent. An accomplished television and radio performer, he is also a regular interviewer at literary festivals and a former presenter of 'Meet the Author' on the BBC News Channel.

He is the author of ‘Mavericks: Empire, Oil, Revolution and the Forgotten Battle of World War One’ (2025).