You said yourself that there are plenty of ways to die: to disappear, you said. But only one way to live: you have to be saved. Somebody has to save you. Aden, southern Yemen 1967, forgotten corner of a once great Empire, is a place of wasted chances. Sebastian Hurst, failed priest, watches his dream of Utopia crumble to dust. As one era closes and another begins, Colonel Worthington, of the occupying forces, must choose to stay and face a bloodbath or abandon his commitments to the region and leave. In a race against failure and betrayal, a group of British officials act out the last days of colonial occupation to the strained pulse of local tensions and political intrigue. Playing each side against the other is James Northwood, Propaganda Officer, whose guiding light is profit. But who will pay the price? Left to die in a pit, Ridha, youngest son of a local family, waits alone for deliverance. As the last dust falls from the hour-glass on Worthington s desk, the dreams of a thousand places become a nightmare. [Lucille Turner] writes very well indeed - laconically, almost epigrammatically at times Tim Mackintosh-Smith. Author of Yemen, Travels in Dictionary Land