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The Regiment
The Regiment
Sep 29, 2024 5:26 PM

Author:Michael Asher

The Regiment

From the bestselling author of The Real Bravo Two Zero comes the definitive history of the world's most elite fighting force - the SAS

'Breathtaking bravery, astonishing feats of endurance, raids and battles described with terrific immediacy and pace. Compelling and definitive . . . will surely not be bettered' Sunday Telegraph

On 4 May 1980, seven terrorists holding twenty-one people captive in the Iranian Embassy in London's Prince's Gate, executed their first hostage. They threatened to kill another hostage every thirty minutes until their demands were met. Minutes later, armed men in black overalls and balaclavas shimmied down the roof on ropes and burst in through windows and doors. In seconds all but one of the terrorists had been shot dead, the other captured.

For most people, this was their first acquaintance with a unit that was soon to become the ideal of modern military excellence - the Special Air Service regiment. Few realized that the SAS had been in existence for almost forty years, playing a discreet, if not secret, role almost everywhere Britain had fought since World War II, and had been the prototype of all modern special forces units throughout the world.

In The Regiment, Michael Asher - a former soldier in 23 SAS Regiment - examines the evolution of the special forces idea and investigates the real story behind the greatest military legend of the late twentieth century.

'Detailed, scathingly honest. Asher has brought the critical eye of the knowledgeable insider to his in-depth study of SAS operations and personalities' Herald

Praise for Michael Asher:

'This is the most complete picture of the Sudanese campaigns that has yet been published . . . a vigorous and engrossing narrative' Philip Ziegler, Daily Telegraph

'A staggering achievement. Asher has delivered a scintillating tale of a period of history that deserves to be remembered' Guardian

Reviews

Compelling and definitive . . . will surely not be bettered

—— Sunday Telegraph

Detailed, scathingly honest. Asher has brought the critical eye of the knowledgeable insider to his in-depth study of SAS operations and personalities

—— Herald

Breathtaking bravery, astonishing feats of endurance, raids and battles described with terrific immediacy and pace

—— James Holland

Extraordinary

—— Damien Lewis

In lines that are as lyrical as they are wise . . . Smith makes connections between the current state of American culture and its history

—— BuzzFeed

Smith is the country's poetic caretaker, calling both for collective reckoning and collective empathy

—— The Atlantic

On a craft level, these poems are impeccable. . . . I know brilliance when I read it and this book is brilliant

—— Roxane Gay

For Smith, poetry is hospitable: accommodating whatever she is moved to write. Her work witnesses, protests and raises its own roof. . . . Smith emerges as a poet in charge of her own creation myth and a recorder of destructive realities

—— The Observer

Her work witnesses, protests and raises its own roof.... Excellent and bracing

—— Kate Kellaway , Observer

Powerful and tender

—— Elle

Unmissable... a collection of poems exploring what it means to be a woman and a citizen in a culture directed by wealth, men and violence

—— Stylist

Personal and ambitious

—— Porter

Weimar Germany… was arty, tolerant, and forward-looking. But other forces lurked. Hett explains these forces, and their devastating effects, superbly well.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Chilling reading … Serves as a warning to the West’s imperilled democracies … Faced with jingoist politicians who resort to poisonous lies, [Hett’s] book fairly proclaims, the forces of democracy can prevail only if they muster courage, resolve and cooperative spirit.

—— Roger Lowenstein , Washington Post

Histories of Nazi Germany can be overwhelming. The Death of Democracy is carefully focused on the conditions and cynical choices that enabled Nazism, in just a few years turning one of the world’s most advanced and liberal societies into a monstrosity. Its author is also that rarity, a specialist who writes lucidly and engagingly. In this post-truth, alternative-facts American moment, The Death of Democracy is essential reading.

—— Kurt Andersen, author of Fantasyland

The story of how Germany turned from democracy to dictatorship in the fifteen years following World War I is not a simple one. But the moral lessons are exceptionally clear. Benjamin Carter Hett honours that complexity in this account while never straying from the path of moral clarity. An outstanding accomplishment.

—— Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge

Hett’s brisk and lucid study offers compelling new perspectives inspired by current threats to free societies around the world… It is both eerie and enlightening how much of Hett’s account rings true in our time. The larger story he tells resonates, too.

—— E. J. Dionne , Washington Post

A first-rate history lesson with a surprisingly prescient message for the world of today... Hett's sharp prose and careful use of newfound material not only sets the work apart from that of his peers, but also effectively draws significant (and particularly scary) parallels with current socio-political climates.

—— Essential Journalism

Inspirational

—— Express

Powerful ... hard to put down.

—— Choice Magazine

Comparisons to Man's Search for Meaning are natural but this work has the potential to be even more bold.

—— Michael Berenbaum, Former Project Director, US Holocaust Memorial Museum

The distressed fabric of the author's traumatic past becomes a beautiful backdrop for a memoir written with integrity and conviction...A searing, astute study of intensive healing and self-acceptance through the absolution of suffering and atrocity.

—— Kirkus Reviews

A splendidly colourful read ... an enthralling and resonant story of populist politicians, and religious war, and the reshaping of nations

—— Bookseller

This book’s fascination is as a joint portrait of the royal couple, the most human of historical actors in England’s greatest political drama.

—— Rebecca Fraser , The Tablet

A highly intelligent, fair and sympathetic biography.

—— Allan Massie , The Catholic Herald

[ An] absorbing biography of Charles I

—— The Telegraph

This is a striking insight into both developing contemporary thought and religious controversies

—— Terry Philpot , The Tablet, **Books of the Year**

White King is a lively attempt to make him [Charles I] flesh and blood

—— Robbie Millen , The Times, **Books of the Year**
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