sunday times

Description

In 2006 Royal Irish Regiment captain Doug Beattie helped retake the Taliban stronghold of Garmsir In Helmand Province. The battle was likened to a modern-day Rorke's Drift. It resulted in more British medals being awarded than for any action since Bravo Two Zero. Doug turned his expereinces into the book An Ordinary Soldier. The Daily Mail says of the book: Of the battalion of courageous tales to emerge from the Iraq and Afghan conflicts, this extraordinary account by an ordinary soldier is one of the finest" It is described by the Sunday Times as a 'riveting read and compelling memoir'. In 2006 Royal Irish Regiment captain Doug Beattie was filmed in Helmand Province for a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary taking part in an action (the Battle of Garmsir, likened to a modern-day Rorke's Drift) which earned him the Military Cross. Now he has turned his life into a book. He started writing as a way of communicating the horrors of war to his family, because he found it impossible to talk to them about his experiences. How do you casually tell your wife you have bayoneted a man to death? Or witnessed the effects of a suicide bomb attack? And he's not only seen conflict in Afghanistan. Doug also talks about his time as RSM to Colonel Tim Collins in Iraq in 2003. Oh, and how, at the age of 15, he shot his best mate in the head with a Walther PPK. Want more? Take a look at his interview on the BBC TV Hardtalk show. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/programmes/hardtalk/