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The Wonga Coup
 
 
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The Wonga Coup (Paperback)

by Adam Roberts (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Profile Books Ltd (22 Jun 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1861979347
  • ISBN-13: 978-1861979346
  • Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 13.4 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 269,897 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #4 in  Books > History > Countries & Regions > Africa > Central

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Product Description

Review

Daily Mail -'Impressively researched and briskly narrated...takes readers into a world where slippery chancers and thuggish ex-special forces type, mostly South African, rub shoulders with spooks and dodgy financiers.' Publishers Weekly - 'The most terrifying thing about this chronicle of a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea is that it's not a Graham Greene novel but a true story. An irresistibly lurid tale...he lifts the curtain to the backrooms of power in postcolonial Africa.' Sunday Times - 'riveting and superbly researched...a brilliant, mordant, blackly comic read.' Observer - 'Adam Roberts shows, with merciless precision, how the dogs of war panicked where they should have been cool, and screwed up where they should have been clinically efficient.'


Sunday Times

‘riveting and superbly researched…a brilliant, mordant, blackly comic read.’
See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A great boys story..., 19 Sep 2006
By Hanglemez Pallaccini (Quito, Ecuador) - See all my reviews
This is a relatively good account of the "toffs 'n' mercenaries" in Africa story of a few years ago. It's also a pretty much a straight telling of the characters, history, lead up and aftermath of the events with a tiny splodge of socio-economic facts and figures and a brief insight into the general corruption that exists in Africa (more often than not as a direct result of Big Business).

Although some of the writing occasionally feels strangled in its attempts to connect the various disparate elements and in trying to create an "exciting" feel with regards to the details of the coup (Roberts is certainly no thriller writer....he works for The Economist)...this is a fascinating insight into a world in which you would have thought no longer existed.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Stranger than any fiction, 30 Nov 2006
A very well written account of an astonishing story: this is what happens when bored ex-soldiers drink too much and start believing their own fantasies. The sheer amaturishness and bungling of these characters is breath-taking. Roberts writes well and the book is also well organised - neither too long nor too short. The one caveat is that there are no pictures and, despite the best descriptive efforts by Roberts, I cannot understand why pictures of the real people and real places he talks about are not included. I hope this is not an example of the publishers being too cheap.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Roberts Coup, 26 Jun 2006
Adam Roberts has commited a thrilling account of the exploits of soldiers of misfortune in Africa. The book includes some amazing revalations about people who you'd might not think of as coup-plotters. I found the book to be a a real page turner, just the kind of book you'd wanna pick up at the airport to pass a four hour flight or so.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Am I the only one with a sneaking regard for the plotters??
First off, this is a pacey little yarn; runs through all the events and makes a nice history of it and a decent account of the individuals involved. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Richard A. Gibbs

4.0 out of 5 stars The Wonga Coup
This book throws light on the mysteries of the plot to sieze billion worth of oil assets in a remote country in Africa. Read more
Published 24 days ago by A. Dani

5.0 out of 5 stars Mad Dogs and Englishmen
It seems like something from another generation: a small group of mercenaries plot to overthrow an African state, install a puppet regime and then milk the country's oil reserves... Read more
Published on 25 Jul 2006 by S. A. Robinson

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