Rogue Heroes was published by Viking in 2016 and adapted into a BBC television series (2022–). The book is the first unauthorized history of the SAS (Special Air Service) written with access to the regiment’s classified wartime archives — previously sealed and available only to the regiment’s own official historians.
David Stirling, a young Scots Guards officer bored and frustrated in Cairo in 1941, convinced Middle East Command to let him form a unit that would parachute behind German lines in North Africa to destroy aircraft on the ground. The first mission was a disaster (most of the unit was killed or captured). Stirling adapted: instead of parachuting, they drove through the desert in jeeps armed with Vickers machine guns, attacked airfields at night, and disappeared before dawn.
Macintyre reveals the SAS’s origins among a group of men who were, by conventional military standards, misfits: alcoholics, aristocratic delinquents, petty criminals, poets, and genuine psychopaths. Their effectiveness came precisely from their refusal to follow rules. But Macintyre also documents the darker side: the SAS killed prisoners routinely, tortured suspects for intelligence, and committed acts that would be classified as war crimes under any standard.
Collecting Rogue Heroes
First edition (Viking, London, 2016): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $15–$25
- Signed first: $30–$50