His Boy's Own heroics captured the imagination of the British people, who needed a reminder of past glories. Adams, the Adjutant General appointed and resolutely supported by Alanbrooke, was the man to thank for bringing the British Officer recruitment process into the 20th Century. By sharing the technology that has grown World of Books Group into the business it is today, we're helping charities increase revenue and reduce waste through re-commerce. In the summer of 1941, Bill was in Cairo working as an adviser for the Chief of the General Staff, Lt General Arthur Smith.

Together the brothers drafted an idea for a parachute unit, which they presented to HQ and was accepted.

Everything he tried before and after the war was unsuccessful because he didn’t have such quality support. On 1 February 1941, Layforce sailed for the Middle East, in support of the capture of Rhodes, but were soon disbanded after suffering heavy casualties in the Battle of Crete and the Battle of the Litani River. As quickly as possible he organised raids on ports using this simple method, bluffing through checkpoints at night using the language skills of some of his soldiers. Under his command, small teams of resourceful, highly trained men penetrated beyond the front lines of the opposing armies and wreaked havoc where the Germans least expected it. His real name was David Stirling, founder of the Special Air Service (SAS), and a man, opined the columnist, "famous in the war for his desert exploits".

Thread by thread, Mortimer unpicks the myth of Stirling’s life and war service that the subject and his fawning admirers had so carefully constructed, both during and after the war. He was commissioned into the Guards where he was christened "The Giant Sloth" by his fellow officers.An early recruit to SOE, it was Bill Stirling who first understood the importance of excellent fieldcraft and training for irregular forces. But it was Mayne who suffered most from Stirling's reworking of history; he was portrayed as a bigot and misogynist, who disliked Catholics as much as he did women. this he did with some degree of success ,but also some losses which helped the infancy of the SAS to improve to a force that went on to cause great hinderance to the enemy. The Nebula Award has been awarded to stories in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre every year since 1966. These hit-and-run operations eventually proved Stirling's undoing; he was captured by the Germans in January 1943 having been dubbed "The Phantom Major" by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.