The Real Fidel Castro

Leycester Coltman, British ambassador to Cuba in the early 1990s, came as close to personal friendship with Castro as any foreigner was permitted. With frequent contact and regular conversations, Coltman was in a unique position to observe the dictator's personality in both public and private situations. Here he presents a close-up view of the man who, for half a century, has been loved, admired, feared and hated, but seldom really understood.
Coltman chronicles the events of Castro's extraordinary life from the political activism of his university days in Havana to periods of exile, imprisonment and guerilla warfare alongside Che Guevera, to the uncertainties of his old age. The book illuminates Castro's shift from rebel to national leader, from soldier to diplomat, and from nationalist to Communist, focusing particular attention on the period during and immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Drawing on his own observations of Castro's moods, tactics and motivations, and on sources uncovered within Cuba and in British Foreign Office archives, Coltman offers a unique insight into the complicated man behind the consummate actor who continues to play a crucial role on the international stage.

Leycester Coltman was head of the Latin America Department of the British Foreign Office in the late 1980s and British Ambassador in Havana (1991-4) and Bogota (1994-8).