Book excerpt: Camillo Ricchiardi can’t help treating foreign wars like swashbuckling adventures. If Winston Churchill wasn’t in chains, the young reporter may have penned a scathing article about his captor’s reckless sojourn with the Boers: underdog farmer-warriors fighting for their independence on African soil. Camillo, an Italian military maverick, seems unfettered in his ego-driven journey to become a household name—wreaking havoc behind enemy lines in what’s fast becoming Britain’s most embarrassing conflict of the nineteenth century. But Camillo’s luck can’t last forever. Britain is rewriting the rules of traditional warfare, and the Boers are becoming desperate to maintain their advantage. When tasked to assemble an elite legion of Italians skilled in bridge bombing and guerrilla tactics, Camillo puts his best hand forward. He only serves his bulletin-perusing audience—those seeking the weekly wish fulfilment they won’t forget in three lifetimes. Camillo must quell mutinies, bounty hunts and romantic desires in his thrilling quest to discover his physical and mental limits—at his persistent and ever-nearing peril.