Illustrations in the text:
Bird of Peace, from UNICEF report, 2001.
Mullah Khalil Ahmed Hassani, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
Kandahar desert turned into battlefield, photographed by the author, 1988.
The author on a Soviet tank, 1988.
Ration book belonging to a dead soldier, Jelalabad 1989.
Sami-ul-Haq next to his garden wall, Islamabad 2001.
Sami-ul-Haq in Islamabad, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
Princess Homaira © Julian Simmonds.
King Zahir Shah with President John F. Kennedy © Julian Simmonds.
King Habibullah © Julian Simmonds.
Letter to Bhoutros Bhoutros Gali.
King Zahir Shah and Queen Homaira in London, 1971 © Julian Simmonds.
Ayubi, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
Begging for nan, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
Entrance to the Golden Needle, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
Zena and Leyla, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
The poet Khafash © Justin Sutcliffe.
Child’s drawing, from ‘Lost Chances’ UNICEF report on Afghanistan, 2001.
Egg game, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
Cockfighting © Witold Krassowski/Network.
Afghan boys with missiles © PA News.
Sultan Hamidy’s business card.
Ismael Khan, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
‘Be a Second Marco Polo, Fly ARIANA’, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
Ayubi’s letter to the author, 2001.
The author in Wasei’s convertible, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
Cosmopolitan Kabul in the 1970s © Hulton Archive.
Woman and child on the Dar-ul Aman.
Second Anglo-Afghan war © Hulton Archive.
Buddhist sculpture, Kabul Museum before the Taliban © Topham Picturepoint.
Destroyed artefacts in Kabul Museum, 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.
President Hamid Karzai in Presidential Palace, Kabul, winter 2001 © Justin Sutcliffe.