I am delighted to announce that Lisa’s memoir about her time as security supervisor at Baghdad International Airport during the Gulf War is being published by Pen and Sword and I look forward to announcing the launch date soon. I worked with Lisa for several months to get the manuscript ready for submission then formulated the query letter and managed the submissions process.  

Born in 1966 Lisa Morgan is the child of a Columbian father and an Indian mother. At six months she was taken into a care home and was later adopted by a white family in the North West of England.  She experienced racism growing up and emerged into adulthood with severe anxiety and such low self esteem that she did not even buy herself a dress, so certain was she that she would never be asked on a date. 

After a period as an air hostess she settled into life working in a phone shop in Essex.  Yet within months she was placed in charge of passenger security at Baghdad International Airport following the 2nd Gulf War when it was the most dangerous and talked about airport in the world. Here she experienced a mortar attack within two hours of being in the country and got to see a remarkable chapter in history from a unique perspective. Within weeks she had reorganised security at the airport, had a loaded gun pulled on her, lost a good friend to a car bomb and started dating an Iraqi male model.

In War has Many Faces Lisa not only tells the story of her remarkable experiences but takes us on a personal journey of growth and discovery. Key to understanding what drove her to the most dangerous place on the planet is her relationship with the man she called her brother, in fact a much-loved cousin who was in the British Army and who committed suicide when she was still young.  He inspired her to be drawn to adventure and the exacting discipline of personal security training. This lead her to overcome her fear of guns and to undertake gruelling SWAT and weapons training in the U.S. – something she did without telling a soul in England. After telling her amazed work colleagues at the phone shop what she had been up to her new life began with a stint as personal protection to a spoiled Saudi Princess in the South of France.

War has Many Faces is a story unlike anything you have read before because Lisa is the kind of person whose story has been ignored in the past. It is a story that will fascinate a wide range of readerships but will be of particular interest to women. Lisa stepped tentatively into a very male environment but soon found her feet and won respect with her ability to give as good as she got when it came to banter, but above all her professionalism. Being a woman proved to be a positive advantage in organising security at Baghdad airport where the luggage searches were largely undertaken by women, and what is more they were women who looked like Lisa. For the first time they had a boss they could completely trust.

War has Many Faces not only captures an amazing story but it encapsulates a unique personality. In some respects Lisa Morgan is an ‘everywoman’, someone with an ordinary job and very little ambition. She just happens to be driven by a powerful urge to test herself. Perhaps because she did not feel safe as a little girl her impulse is to go to a place of danger and make others feel safe. Once there her sense of humour serves her well and she discovers a resilience and an appetite for life that she never even suspected was inside her. In every sense she comes into her own.