David Stirling

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Celebrated as the founder of the legendary Special Air Service (SAS), David Stirling was the 'Phantom Major' of newspaper fame, a glamorous and fearless guerrilla fighter who, in the Second World War, struck terror into the hearts of the Nazis in North Africa. Stirling, however, was neither a military innovator nor a daring warrior. He was immature, incompetent and reckless, character flaws that he carried through his troubled life.In this gripping new biography, Gavin Mortimer reveals why Stirling kept his private life so secret and why, ultimately, he was more 'Phoney Major' than 'Phantom Major'. He reveals how the SAS really came to be formed in the summer of 1941, and the man who deserves credit for raising the regiment. Bill Stirling, David's brother, was the brains of the SAS and Paddy Mayne the brawn. Together they established the regiment in those early years, a brilliant combination of intellectual and physical force. When David's clumsiness led to his capture in 1943, the SAS flourished in his absence under Mayne's inspiring command. He finished the war with a DSO and three bars, whereas Stirling returned from captivity embittered and disillusioned. For a decade after the war Stirling had little to do with the SAS, but when Mayne was killed in a car crash in 1955 he set out to undermine the Irishman's reputation while exaggerating his own.Charismatic but manipulative, Stirling shamelessly fashioned an alter ego out of half-truths and lies from which he derived fame and fortune. Mortimer's absorbing narrative draws on a wealth of previously unseen material in unravelling a complex life, and includes among its supporting cast Winston Churchill, Evelyn Waugh and Colonel Gaddafi.