Maclachlan, Colin The Pilgrim

SAS. Who Dares Wins

Colin Maclahlan's autobiography begins with his difficult childhood and his escape to the military, where he grows up as a fifteen-year-old boy and matures into the SAS soldier we know today. The first chapters describe physical, emotional and sexual abuse, and Colin could easily have ended up in a home, but despite all the adversity and with the help of the Children's Commission, the NSPCC and some hard-working teachers, Colin fled to the army. Colin had to obtain special permission to join the army at the age of fifteen and developed from a young, vulnerable and traumatised boy into a capable soldier by preparing for the first Gulf War and joining the Royal Scots, the oldest and most senior infantry regiment in the British Army. From tours of duty in Northern Ireland to his role as the Queen's Butcher to Colin's first television appearances in Soldier Soldier and Gladiators, Colin's stories and anecdotes are both thrilling and hilarious. Colin then describes the gruelling SAS selection process, the toughest and most gruelling military selection process in the world. Colin describes in detail what most people have never heard of, in this secretive world where Colin falls from 196 participants to just a handful in six months! The reader is then given an unprecedented insight into the life of an SAS soldier. Everyday life in an operational squadron and the associated operations, missions and training are described in detail. Colin was part of Mountain Troop, D Squadron, which was involved in some of the most famous and dangerous missions in the history of the SAS.