Junior RAF pilot Rob May has arrived in Iraq at the worst possible moment.

1957 should have been the year the British treaty was renewed, instead the Royal Air Force have been asked to leave.

With an urgent need for him to qualify on the De Haviland Venom to enable a hurried sudden evacuation, May is thrown together with an irascible and unpredictable flight commander, Flight Lieutenant 'Bunny' Pater-Smith.

The Venom is a fast jet which needs careful handling or it will kill you quickly.

But that's nothing compared to Bunny.

In a mix of biting desert sandstorms, a broken flight commander and a corrupt member of the Iraqi royal family, Rob May, must choose his next step carefully.

His life depends on it.

A Cold War novella from James Blatch, Desert Venom evokes the golden age of military jets among the dying embers of the British empire.