Aden, 20 June 1967: two army Land Rovers burn ferociously in the Midday sun. The bodies of nine British soldiers litter the road. Bright flames mixed with thick, black smoke bellows above Crater town, a tough Arab neighbourhood built on top of a dormant volcano. Surrounded by high rugged peaks and perched on the south-western edge of the Arabian peninsular, it is home to insurgents, terrorists and gangsters, who establish #145;no-go areas#146; against the British-backed Federation government. Crater had come to symbolise Arab nationalist defiance in the face of the world#146;s most powerful empire. Hovering 2,000 ft. above the smouldering destruction, a tiny Scout helicopter surveys the scene. Its passenger is the recently arrived Commanding Officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Mitchell.

Soon the world#146;s media would christen him #145;Mad Mitch#146;, in recognition of his extremely robust and controversial reoccupation of Crater two weeks later. Mad Mitch was truly a man out of his time. Supremely self-confident and debonair, he was an empire builder, not dismantler, and railed against the national malaise he felt had gripped Britain#146;s political establishment. Drawing on a wide array of never-before-seen archival sources and eyewitness testimonies, Mad Mitch#146;s Tribal Law tells the remarkable story of inspiring leadership, loyalty and betrayal in the final days of British Empire. It is, above all, a shocking account of Britain#146;s forgotten war on terror.