A Very British Killing

A deserving winner of the Orwell Prize

Independent

[An] incendiary, eloquent account... A brilliantly researched indictment which argues that torture is endemic in the military

Arifa Akbar, Independent

Andrew Williams is an academic lawyer with the tenacity of a detective and the literary flair of the best kind of investigative journalist, and his account of the fate of Baha Mousa, a young Iraqi man who was beaten to death by his guards in a British military prison, is one of the most important pieces of writing to come out of the Iraq War.

Richard Lloyd Parry, author of PEOPLE WHO EAT DARKNESS

Anyone who hopes to avoid repeating the such calamities in future wars should read this book

Jack Fairweather, author of A WAR OF CHOICE

This is a landmark book. Fluently, meticulously, A. T. Williams allows us to understand both the murderous nature of colonial war and the insidious moral corruption behind its institutional facades

John Pilger

Of immense value to anyone interested in the conduct, and misconduct, of war in our time

Evening Standard

Brilliantly lucid

Scotsman

For all its forensic detail, the book grips us emotionally, and has as keen a sense of storytelling as a horror story or courtroom drama. Ultimately, the greatest achievement of this incendiary, eloquent and angry book is that it humanises Mousa beyond the iconic and infamous figure he has become in his death

Judges of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2013

What to do after reading it? some might put this book away and try to forget about it, the way you would a bad dream. Others will feel changed by the awareness. A few will channel their feelings into action. There can't be any better definition of political writing at its most excellent

Independent