Ben MacIntyre has a talent for taking well-worn stories and injecting new life into them; he did this previously with Operation Mincemeat, Double Cross, and A Spy Among Friends. His latest book, Rogue Heroes, tackles the story of the SAS during World War Two, retold often but never with such verve or insight.
Rogue Heroes brings fresh perspective from unpublished material and the authors own insight into human nature than enables him to build character portraits, deconstruct the wooden legends and replace it with an equally legendary but flesh-and-blood version. This separates Rogue Heroes from many contemporary histories of the war as the story is ultimately carried along by the vivid characterizations with which the SAS players, great and small, are brought to life. yet everything was documented- (In one endearing scene, David Stirling and Paddy Mayne clash and reunite by revealing how they really wanted to be an artist and a writer, respectively). The action is described with thrilling, Alister McClean-style derring-do, although it is equally unflinching in describing the reality of war.
Rogue Heroes has important lessons for Special Warfare today, in looking at its origins.
I received a free copy of this from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.
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