In the dust and blazing heat of Helmand, the young men of 16 Air Assault Brigade find themselves in the most relentless battles faced by British troops in recent history. As the only writer to have obtained unprecedented, unrestricted access to the front line, Sam Kiley is with them to bear witness to the most intense challenges of their lives. Desperate Glory is an unflinching portrait of the reality of war - the bombs, the shooting and the daily struggles that push them to the very limit of human endurance.
Over the last decade, we have sent thousands of people to fight on our behalf and called it heroism. But what happens when the heroes come back home, having lost their friends and killed their enemies, having seen and done things that have no place in civilian life? In Aftershock, Matthew Green will tell the story of our veterans' journey from the frontline of combat to the reality of return. Through first person accounts and wide-ranging interviews with former combatants and their families, serving personnel and military experts, as well as physicians and psychologists, Aftershock will look beyond the labels of shell shock and PTSD to get to the heart of today's post-conflict experience. It will pursue the question that the military are so reluctant to ask: why do people who are trained to thrive within the theatre of war so often find themselves ill-prepared for peace? As today's battle-scarred troops begin to lay their weapons down, Aftershock will be a hard-hitting, nuanced and powerfully compelling account of the hidden cost of conflict.
