Heroes by the Dozen
Special Forces Heroes by Michael Ashcroft was published by Headline. It is a collection of heroic incidents. The royalties of Milord Ashcroft are donated to Help For Heroes, a charity supporting servicemen injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was in the expectation of getting some insight into what makes heroes tick that I started to read this book. It had been handed to me on the understanding that it contained the answer to the difference between a hero and a coward. Lord Ashcroft has spent years studying the bravery of soldiers in battles, and it was said his latest book would try to answer that question.
Maybe the book tried, Milord certainly didn’t. I found it a gruelling read, taking me from battlefield to battlefield through blood and bravery. In time, the stories started to resemble each other. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if I hadn’t read that one already.
Michael Ashcroft is a specialist, and his stories for a certainty are well researched and dutifully recorded. But their fascination must be for others. I felt like having walked into a stamp collector enthusing over his stamps. Expecting to see colourful stamps from the entire world with exotic animals, butterflies, and sceneries, he would show me 600 times the same grey stamp with a dot here and a printing error there to distinguish one from the other.
Ashcroft distinguishes between two types of valour, spur of the moment bravery and cold courage involving planned heroism. The book does not give any clues to where he draws the lines. Obviously, there are other forms of heroism that go unmentioned, e.g. perseverance. And still others would have been out of scope for this book.
The book is corollary damage to Five TV’s series of the same name. It is in all probability a commissioned book. It has all the marks of homework made and without joy at that.
All in all, I found the book lacking in conclusions and explanations regarding his personal views. His book should treat only heroes receiving medals for premeditated bravery. That might be his point of view, but I don’t share it. What is premeditated in a surprise attack from enemies still baffles me after finishing the book. I put it aside gladly, and it will not be one I care to read again.
Liked it
Great book review! Like it.
This was an interesting review, I liked how you got across your description of how you felt reading it, likening it to a stamp collector and the boring stamps. It sounds as if it is a book that my father (before Alzheimers) would have enjoyed receiving for the reasons it was written and popped it on the shelf.
Thank you both
I haven’t heard of this book, but it sounds fascinating. Must go to the library and get it..thanks!
Honest review.
Thank you both
Enjoyed the review. Too bad the book was a disappointment! At least the $ you spent on it went to a good cause!
It still has a heroic pce of £18!
At least the royalties are going to a good cause! You actually make me want to read this book now! so that I can see if I share your opinion. I love the stamp collector comparison
You are quite the writer yourself.
You sound like me, Flowers, after reading a bad movie review and going to see because the review was so bad
Thanks for the compliments
Definitively sounds like a commission. Stories of valor need a first person touch, someone who was there. Valor is one of those things that you know when you see it but it can not be studied in a lab.
Great review.
Grant
Thanks Grant.
The lab I think would be the world, if ever …
Thank you for the thorough review of this literary work. A wonderful job
Thanks. Sounds exactly like the sort of history I don’t want to read, lol.
But the review was (as usual) wonderful.
Best,
Inna
Good Review!
Thank you all