I loved this book for a couple of reasons. First, the book is pure Macintryre. Fast-paced, well written with just the right amount of detail and scholarship to keep the story compelling. The subject comes alive and the book just flows. On another level, I found there to be lots of interesting lessons falling out of the various narratives about how units are formed, how missions evolve and what happens when units outgrow their initial scope. What happens when units designed for one type of operations are incorporated into other areas or operations that do not necessarily mesh with the original intent? These issues come out as we follow the exploits of the unit in Italy and Germany at the end of the war working alongside and in support of wider operations. All told, a compelling and riveting read.

This book details the founding of the UK Special Air Service, and the Special Boat Service, by David Stirling, and the missions that both Services undertook during the Second World War from 1941 when the Services were founded, to 1945, and the end of World War. If you are interested in military history, and these services in particular, you will enjoy reading this book.

This is an exciting and detailed account of some of the wartime activities of a group of SAS soldiers and it is well worth reading both as a story and as a tribute to these (to me previously unknown) heroes. Where I beg to differ with the author and publisher is in their classification of this work as Non-fiction. The author clearly states that this is an “authorised” (not an official) history, which presumably gives him greater freedom of presentation and comment. However, to me non-fiction is a description of established facts, commented on and interpreted by the author, but without the inclusion of imaginary extras to enhance the action. The present book contains many conversations and happenings that the author simply imagines to have occurred in the light of known events. I do not consider these to be history (not even “authorised history”); they are fiction. Of course, this does not detract from the tale, which is exhilarating stuff, and it is not the only book of this type that claims to be non-fiction. Perhaps the publishers of such works should place them in a new category: I suggest “pseudo-non-fiction”.