Fidel and Che

FIDEL AND CHE: A REVOLUTIONARY FRIENDSHIP is the story of the remarkable friendship between two iconic figures.

Not yet thirty, Fidel Castro and Ernesto (Che) Guevara met in 1955 while both in exile in Mexico City. Guevara, the Argentine doctor plagued by asthma, had reached the end of the travels he began by motorcycle several years before. Fidel Castro, peasant's son, scholar and rebel, had just fled Cuba, fearing for his life. Over the next twelve years, until Guevara's death in 1967, their journey together would take them from the safe houses of Mexico s political underground, to war in the Cuban mountains and ultimately into the heart of the Cold War.

Drawing on extensive research, including declassified material and interviews with key figures in Havana, Moscow and Washington, Simon Reid-Henry uncovers, for the first time, the full story behind the central relationship of the Cuban revolution: their shared revolutionary ambitions, their conflicting personalities, the wilfulness that bound them together and the pressures that would tear them apart.

FIDEL AND CHE is set against the tide of revolution that swept across the world during the middle of the twentieth century. It is the story of two men who shared a common dream; who became friends, comrades and brothers-in-arms; and who, finally, would make an epic choice between their friendship and their beliefs.

“'Two big figures, one fine debut: It is quite a task to make your first book a lucid, pulsating study of not one but two huge figures, but Simon Reid-Henry pulls it off . . . The two men's early lives are skilfully drawn, with playground anecdotes . . . subtly deploying his own extensive travel and recently declassified sources, Reid-Henry produces a taut history of two men who brought out the best in each other and came to embody the very notion of modern-day protest.'”

Before you see Steven Soderberghs Hollywood version of events in the two forthcoming Che films, read Simon Reid-Henry s authoritative account of what really happened - TIME OUT

As Simon Reid-Henry shows, their 12-long-year revolutionary friendship was of paramount importance to both these comrades at arms , an EXCELLENT BOOK! - Sydney Morning Herald

"The story of two of the most iconic individuals of the 20th century [who] achieved more together than they ever did apart" - The Canberra Times

Reid-Henry brings back the danger and intense emotions of that revolutionary period...it reads like adventure fiction. - Independent

Lucid, well-researched and highly readable - City AM

As exciting and readable as a Cold War thriller - The Times

Gripping...deeply impressive...rigorously sourced - Independent on Sunday

Absorbing - Sunday Times

Simon Reid-Henry is a writer and prize-winning scholar of the Cuban revolution. He lives with his partner in London where he lectures in geography at Queen Mary, University of London. This is his first book.

FIDEL AND CHE: A REVOLUTIONARY FRIENDSHIP is the story of the remarkable friendship between two iconic figures. Not yet thirty, Fidel Castro and Ernesto (Che) Guevara met in 1955 while both in exile in Mexico City. Guevara, the Argentine doctor plagued by asthma, had reached the end of the travels he began by motorcycle several years before. Fidel Castro, peasant's son, scholar and rebel, had just fled Cuba, fearing for his life. Over the next twelve years, until Guevara's death in 1967, their journey together would take them from the safe houses of Mexico s political underground, to war in the Cuban mountains and ultimately into the heart of the Cold War. Drawing on extensive research, including declassified material and interviews with key figures in Havana, Moscow and Washington, Simon Reid-Henry uncovers, for the first time, the full story behind the central relationship of the Cuban revolution: their shared revolutionary ambitions, their conflicting personalities, the wilfulness that bound them together and the pressures that would tear them apart. FIDEL AND CHE is set against the tide of revolution that swept across the world during the middle of the twentieth century. It is the story of two men who shared a common dream; who became friends, comrades and brothers-in-arms; and who, finally, would make an epic choice between their friendship and their beliefs.

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