As a former soldier myself, I bought this book as a holiday read at the airport and was not disappointed - in fact it was very hard to put down.

He starts his story in Sierra Leone, then on to Northern Ireland, out to the desert of Iraq and finally back home under the cloud of war crime charges. Throughout it all there is much soldierly humour (some of the photo captions are priceless), potted histories of the people and places caught in turmoil and naturally the role he played in it all.

Colonel Collins comes across very much as a soldier's officer - leads by example, cultivates initiative and keeps BS to a minimum. No doubt his speech will go down in history. A pity his approach to the liberation of the Iraqi people, cultivated no doubt by his time with the SAS and on the streets of his hometown of Belfast, could not have been more widely adopted and maintained.

I highly recommend this book.

I'd like to post this review but I haven't written enough to satisfy Brigadier Champion's strict criteria. Display the minimum word-count and Ajaxify an as-you-type word count perhaps?

Edit: ha! that worked :p