The Mad and the Brave

A fascinating, multi-layered portrait of the foreign fighters battling the might of Russia. Colin Freeman is one of the most intrepid and perceptive war correspondents of our time.” – Toby Harnden, Orwell Prize Winning Author of Dead Men Risen

‘A fascinating and gritty account of life on the frontline in Ukraine’ – Sean Rayment, ex-Para and author of Bomb Hunter

Colin Freeman is a former chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Telegraph, now a freelance foreign affairs journalist. He writes features, comment and book reviews for The Daily Telegraph, as well as for The Spectator, The Economist, and The National in Abu Dhabi. He contributes regularly to From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio Four and does media punditry on foreign affairs. He is also the author of three previous books: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: The mission to rescue the hostages the world forgot (Icon Books, 2021). Kidnapped: Life as a Somali pirate hostage (Monday Books, 2011) was about the author’s own experience of being abducted in Somalia in 2008. And The Curse of the Al-Dulaimi Hotel and other half-truths from Baghdad (Monday Books, 2008) is a book of reportage about post-Saddam Iraq.