The first ever authorised history of the SAS, now a major BBC series starring Connor Swindells, Jack O'Connell and Dominic West In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, came up with a plan that was radical and entirely against the rules- a small undercover unit that would inflict mayhem behind enemy lines. So began the most celebrated and mysterious military organisation in the world- the SAS. Opening its secret archives for the first time, the SAS finally decided to tell its astonishing story. It granted bestselling historian Ben Macintyre unprecedented access to a treasure trove of SAS secret files, unseen reports and footage, memos, diaries, letters, maps and photographs, and exclusive interviews with its founder members. The result is an exhilarating tale of fearlessness and heroism, recklessness and tragedy; of extraordinary men who were willing to take monumental risks. It is a story about the meaning of courage.