Amedeo: A True Story of Love and War in Abyssinia

HarperCollins, London, 2002. Softcover. Good Condition. This is the true story of Amedeo Guillet, an Italian calvary officer who was sent out to Abyssinia as part of Mussolini's army to establish and command a troop of 2000 Spahis. He met and fell in love with Khadija - a beautiful Ethiopian Muslim who became his constant companion during the early years of World War II. She stayed with him right to the end, when he had only a ragged band of followers, fighting on against the British as guerillas after the rest of the Italian army had surrendered. Together they held up the British lorries heaving up the mountain road to Asmara and blew up the important Ponte Aosta. Khadija was always at Amedeo's side, until the day a British captain recognized him and opened fire with a machine-gun. Amedeo then went on the run, disguised as an Arab. He scraped a living selling water and hiding from the British before escaping across the Red Sea on a pirate ship. The pirates discovered he was a Christian and dumped him in the desert. He eventually made it to the Yemen, only to be thrown in jail.Amedeo's story is full of vivid detail - Fascist Italy, his early years in Ethiopia commanding the Cossack-like Spahis, the brutal Abyssinian war waged by the Duce, Italian and British colonial rivalry; Amedeo led the last ever cavalry charge the British army faced (Eritrea 1941), defeat and guerrilla warfare against the British; then flight, imprisonment and a great love lost as he leaves his beloved Khadija behind to face her future alone and returns to Italy, to his fiancee and a career as a distinguished Italian diplomat and Arabist. 332 pages. Tanning to pages. Illustrated with black and white photographs. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: 1-2 kilos. Category: Biography; Biography & Autobiography; History. ISBN: 0007139950. ISBN/EAN: 9780007139958. Inventory No: 258668. . 9780007139958