Biting Through

John Ratcliffe is a quiet man, not the type of person who stands out in a crowd or draws attention to himself. But scratch the surface and you will find a person who has lived anything but a normal life.

Once belonging to a group of highly trained soldiers, Ratcliffe left the Australian military to pursue a career in Melbourne, practising alternative medicine. Years later, he was called to Afghanistan for a short assignment as a security contractor. He planned to be back in Australia after a few weeks. Five years later, he finally returned home.

Biting Through is the story of what happened in those five years, during one man's descent into the behind-the-headlines reality of the war in Afghanistan. Thrust into a world of terrible danger, Ratcliffe encountered human traffickers, drugs lords, and corrupt officials while the international community looked on and went about its business. He tried to find a way to make a difference to those whose lives he touched, all the while negotiating minefields of dishonesty, only to be betrayed at the final hurdle and incarcerated in a medieval Afghan hellhole, awaiting the death penalty.