Book excerpt: Book 2 of The Speedicut Memoirs picks up Charles Speedicut’s story from the point in 1918 at which he is about to leave for the Crimea to rescue the Dowager Empress of Russia, a mission which he foresees will be the most dangerous of his life to date. But Fate intervenes and sends him back to the Middle East, where he has a hand in the end of the war in Syria, followed by a series of adventures rescuing members of deposed European royal families that ends, with perfect symmetry, in the Valley of the Kings ... “Speedicut, Lawrence and the Turks: the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable.” Field Marshal Viscount Allenby “I am deeply indebted to Charles Speedicut for giving me the idea for Ninotchka.” Ernst Lubitsch “I should have killed Speedicut when I had the chance.” Marguerite, Princess Ali Fahmy