When I was thirteen, I was often running amok with a stick, pretending to be some sort of war hero, nobly defending my mother’s dahlias against the invading hordes of the next street along. Fortunately, I had my invisible force field to protect myself from their relentless attack, despite the nonsense claims about magical force-field-penetrating bullets. Ishmael Beah, however, did not have the luxury of simply imagining a warzone when, at the age of thirteen, he became a soldier in the very real, very brutal Sierra Leone civil war. Hear some of his experiences as he appears on The Book Show – read more.