The Birdcage

Welcome to Salonika in 1916, once one of the jewels in the Ottoman crown. It is now suddenly Greek. A city nominally neutral, but teeming with French, British and Serbian armies, to hold it against the Austro-German forces to the north, with their Bulgarian allies. In this sparkling tale we find a world of perilous ascents from military kite balloons; of madcap journeys by mule, by Wolseley motor car and by foot over the grim northern mountains; of U-boats lurking off the city; of sinister and dangerous Gazmend Effendi, who may be Turkish - or is it Bulgarian? Or even Venezuelan? The breathless ride is just beginning.