It had all the ingredients of a best-selling thriller – the clandestine activities of mercenaries, an impossibly dare-devil plot to topple the regime of one of the world’s most corrupt countries; the ‘boy’s own’ approach by arrogant old public school pupils and the controversy and intrigue from within governmental departments. Add in high-profile figures embroiled in the plot and the far-reaching repercussions and you have what was to become one of the most talked-about exploits of the twenty-first century. In retrospect, the attempted coup on the tiny African country of Equatorial Guinea was always destined to fail. Even the coup’s leader, Simon Mann was forced to admit it.
