Fidel Castro & the Cuban Revolution What the F**k Was All That About?

There is no shortage of books on Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution, but trying to get people to read them is another matter. Here in the UK there is, on the whole, an overwhelming sense of indifference when it comes to the subject. The reason behind this lack of interest is understandable, not least because of the lack of shared history and trade links between the countries. But another possible reason is that many books about Fidel and the Cuban Revolution aren't really made for the layman. As such, they usually require a certain amount of prior-knowledge on the subject, often involving long tracts of socialist jargon that makes you decide to get on with the housework. So with this in mind, I decided to write this book in the way that I talk to my friends round a camp-fire or down the pub - by which I mean informally, and with anecdotes, odd-tangents and jokes that would make my partner roll her eyes. In this way, it will be accessible to those who have not come across the subject before, whilst offering a more engaging story to those already well-versed. What I hope to offer is a fresh perspective, where the story is not just about a man who was jailed for trying - and failing - to start an uprising, fled to Mexico, sailed back from Mexico - this time with an army of 82 men, one of them with severe asthma - whereupon he ousted a dictator who had at his disposal an army of 40,000 men, tanks and jet fighters. And it won't just be about the time he repelled an invasion which had been organised and financed by the biggest military superpower the world has ever seen, even through his own men had to learn how to drive their tanks on the way to the battlefield. And it wont just be about how he survived hundreds of assassination attempts, how helped end apartheid and of course, or how he has created one of the most enviable healthcare systems in the world. Because what it will mainly be about is that the ways in which one's life can be shaped by the grandest ideas such as equality and fraternity, and result in a surreal chaos in which boy scouts are held responsible for keeping the streets free from rioters, oranges are declared bourgeois, and the United States National Security Council discuss a plot to fake the resurrection of Jesus Christ.