$500,000,000 and Some Goats

A young deep-sea diver ending his first Nigerian tour is kidnapped at gunpoint by militants at war with the oil multinationals. Held hostage in a remote swamp and in squalid conditions, he is tormented with death threats, mock executions, savage mosquitoes, the erratic gunfire of his drunken, drug-fuelled captors and the unpredictable conduct of their senior officers. Here, Philip Durdey gives a blistering day-by-day account of his incarceration at 'Camp Horrid'. To make the long, painful nights more bearable, he would close his eyes and recall events from his past, so the story is punctuated with these reflections. With brutal frankness, rich humour and an engaging self-deprecation, he describes an accident-prone boyhood, his recovery from heroin addiction and his adventurous introduction to life at sea. Unmistakably authentic and vastly entertaining, this book is an unconventional autobiography which is truly a delight to read.