The book is a solid read, and on a subject which needed telling, but I do wish Lewis had merely 'reported' the exchanges between the troopers on the ground and not tried to re-enact/reconstruct them, almost verbatim (and annoyingly in the vernacular). Like others I was tempted to skip whole passages whilst Kiwi (who had the cadences here of a South African and not a New Zealander), 'Jimmy the Cockney' and the Big Scottish Monster were bantering-off each other. Only a minor gripe, but I feel that, in the initial stages of the book, more coverage of the reasons leading to Britain's involvement in Sierra Leone (i.e. Op Palliser being green-lit) could have been accorded the reader - in total contrast to the Analysis section of the book, which is spectacularly well researched, lucid and devastating in its damning indictment of the UN's hopelessly outmoded, inefficient and ultimately completely ineffective deployment, structure and mandating. The section on the (it is to be hoped for) considered future use of Private Military Companies (PMCs) is sense incarnate: as the UN can no longer sit idly-by and watch (Angola, Rwanda et al) millions of innocents be slaughtered whilst merely wringing its hands whilst intoning "how disappointed we are..." whilst rebel and other bandit groups in Africa (and elsewhere) have unbridled free rein to butcher at will. There's an old Regiment saying that they play by Big Boys' Rules: and the content of this book leaves you in no doubt that they they are deadly serious in that sentiment. In complete contrast to the US Rangers and Delta Force débâcle in Mogadishu, even when not fighting in ideal conditions, the books is a textbook example of how a mission can succeed, and Lewis is to be congratulated on his ability to report obvious first-hand accounts of some of the men on the ground.