But I am happy to report we have found a common ground now - namely a good TV series. I suggested to her the Mitchell and Markby series which for some inexplicable reason made my sister VERY ANGRY! And then she recommended the Discovery of Witches series to me, which, if I am being diplomatic I did not love as much as some related to me by blood.

As background, my wonderful sister and I have stopped recommending books to each other. The second reason is even more shocking, namely that my sister has recommended a book to me that I actually loved.

Believe it or not, I do enjoy non-fiction and indeed there are 2 such reads on my all time top 10 books both of which I now want to re-read and review for this blog. When I was writing my last post reviewing the books I had read in 2022, I was quite shocked to discover I had only read one non-fiction book. Today's book is a little different to the ones I normally review and there a couple of reasons for this. It’s an engaging story, shaped through a brilliant cast and all-out action, that captures the fearless moments of the SAS soldiers as they moved forward with reckless abandon.Happy New Year!I hope that however you marked the occasion you had lots of fun and that 2023 will be brilliant for you all. The show SAS Rogue Heroes feels authentic and sensitively portrayed but with moments of comedy and modernisation. Wartime classics combine with heavy rock, and sultry chords swirl out of a nightclub in Cairo where the story takes us to meet the spy Eve (played in Bond girl style by Sophia Boutella). The music is a tour de force as the story moves along. Recruiting as they go, the squad become a team of “men who refuse to stand down”. Connor Swindells is brilliant in his role as David Shillings: sharp, witty and fearless, he drives the story from the start and brings on board Paddy Mayne (Jack O’Connell) and Jock Lewis (Alfie Allen) to then form this trio. The SAS begins when three stand-out soldiers, who are fearless and happy to “take matters into their own hands”, form their own group of “disciplined men”. Shot in Morocco for the sheer breadth of the desert, the cinematography delivers a gorgeous landscape of sun-kissed sand dunes and the pyramids in Cairo, brutally paired against the explosive impact of aerial bombings. Tensions are high and made no easier when plans go awry and the trucks run out of petrol. It’s 1941 in the scorching desert, and British soldiers roll in convoy to Tunka, Libya, to stop the relentless bombing under German assault headed up by General Rommel. It tells the story of how the Special Forces Unit (SAS) was formed during World War II through an adaptation brought to screen by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, who then combines the elements of adventure, drama and history to recount these monumental moments. SAS Rogue Heroes is a historical six-part drama based on the book of the same name by Ben Macintyre.

Sas rogue heroes book review