For Joe Milburn, Geordie to the core and son of a tenant farmer, war presents an intoxicating mix of terror, tragedy, bloodshed, adrenalin and opportunity.

As his wartime exploits earn him admiration and respect, he begins to mix in circles very different from those he grew up in — and to take part in military operations that go not only beyond his own previous experience, but beyond the expectations of the most practiced of
soldiers.

Gradually, he feels his north country past, and what he assumed would be his future, slipping away. War, it seems, when needs must, has as much to do with loss — of comrades, of identity, of social structures, of assumptions — as it has to do with strategy and politics.

When Joe finds himself in North Africa he discovers, among all the loss, love, in the form of Nurse Alice Fleming. Could this be the turning point? Yet as he makes plans for a safer future, one more challenge calls. What else can a man expect when he keeps company with the newly-born SAS?

About the Author

John Sadler is a military historian from Northumberland. He has written extensively on a range of periods and is a battlefield tour guide who covers most of the major battles from both world wars (and numerous others). He also lectures on military history at Newcastle University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning, is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a member of the Battlefield Trust and Guild of Battlefield Tour Guides.