The acclaimed autobiography of Fidel Castro one of the towering political figures of our age who dominated both Cuba and the world stage for over half a century. Here Castro tells his story in full for the first time speaking openly about everything from his parents and earliest influences to his imprisonment guerrilla war and the Cuban revolution and on to the Bay of Pigs the missile crisis and his relationship with Che Guevara. He also remembers the people he knew from John F. Kennedy to Ernest Hemingway. Whatever your views on Castro are this is an essential record of an incredible life - and even more extraordinary times. Cubaphiles are all the richer for this book ... Castros prodigious gifts are well displayed: his formidable erudition steely discipline epic curiosity and his astute grasp of history Financial Times Castros life has been extraordinary and he can tell a good story Evening Standard