An Ice-Cream War Av William Boyd

<p><b>''As ambitious as it is remarkable. Balances on seesaws of innocence and violence, sanity and lunacy, hilarity and horror'' </b><i>The Times</i><br><i>_____________________________<br></i><br><i>''We will all melt like ice-cream in the sun!''</i><br><i>British soldier, East Africa, 1914</i><br><br>On the Western Front millions are being slaughtered. But in East Africa a ridiculous and utterly ignored campaign is being waged - one that continues after the Armistice because no one bothers to tell the participants to stop.<br><br>As the conflict sweeps up Africans and colonials, so those left at home and those fighting abroad find themselves unable to escape the tide of history bearing down on them.<br><br><i>_____________________________<br></i><br><b>''A towering achievement'' </b> John Carey<br><br><b>''Compulsively readable'' </b> Blake Morrison, <i>Observer</i><br><br><b>''Funny, assured, a seriocomic romp. A study of people caught in the side pockets of calamity that dramatize