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      Published in Great Britain in 2014 by

       Canongate Books Ltd, 14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE

       www.canongate.tv

      Copyright © Geoff Dyer, 2014

      Copyright photography © Chris Steele-Perkins

      The moral right of the author has been asserted

      Illustration by Nathalie Lees

       British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

      A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library

      eISBN 978 1 78211 335 5

      Contents

       Chapter 1

       Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Chapter 5

       Chapter 6

       Chapter 7

       Chapter 8

       Chapter 9

       Chapter 10

       Chapter 11

       Chapter 12

       Chapter 13

       Chapter 14

       Chapter 15

       Chapter 16

       Chapter 17

       Chapter 18

       Chapter 19

       Chapter 20

       Chapter 21

       Chapter 22

       Chapter 23

       Chapter 24

       Chapter 25

       Chapter 26

       Chapter 27

       Chapter 28

       Chapter 29

       Chapter 30

       Chapter 31

       Chapter 32

       Chapter 33

       Chapter 34

       Chapter 35

       Chapter 36

       Chapter 37

       Chapter 38

       Chapter 39

       Chapter 40

       Chapter 41

       Chapter 42

       Chapter 43

       Chapter 44

       Chapter 45

       Appendix: US Naval Rankings

       Acknowledgments

       In loving memory Phyllis ‘Mary’ Dyer 27 July 1925–29 June 2011 Arthur ‘John’ Dyer 30 November 1919–30 November 2011

      1

      We were going to be flying to the carrier from the US Navy base in Bahrain on a Grumman C-2A Greyhound: an ungainly propeller plane, more war- or work-horse than greyhound. There was nothing sleek or speedy about it. The sky was doing what it always did at this time: waiting for the sun to show up. The sun is the only thing that happens to the sky in this part of the world—that and the stars which were nowhere to be seen. The temperature was pleasant; a few hours from now it would be infernal. Sixteen passengers, all Navy except for me and the snapper, gathered round the back of the Greyhound—also known as a COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery)—listening to the safety briefing. Our luggage had been weighed and taken away for loading. Despite my protests, I had to hand over my computer bag as well, something I’d never let happen before. It had to be stowed because when we landed on the carrier, when the plane

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