This is the authorized history of the SAS by bestselling author Joshua Levine. Never-before-seen photographs and unheard stories bring the history of this special force to life in vivid colour and astonishing detail.

Created during World War II, the SAS was a small band of men brought together in the North African desert. They were the toughest and brightest of their cohort, the most resilient, most capable in close combat and most careful in surveillance. Winning approval for this radical new form of warfare was no small feat, but eventually it was achieved. The SAS was born, their mission to take on small-scale but often devastating raids and risks behind enemy lines.

Levine tours us through the wartime experience, taking us behind the scenes through exclusive access to SAS archives. Drawing on individual stories and personal testimony, including interviews with veterans and family members of the original troupe, Levine creates a striking sense of what it was like to fight and train in the SAS during the Second World War. This illustrated history tells the origin story of this enigmatic unit by bringing to light photographs and stories long thought lost to history.