MEN I KNOW ARE FTLY SPOKEN… TERLY DEADLY
Growing up in Hereford, where the Regiment is based, top TV writer Matthew Hall says almost every other dad was in special forces. And they seemed entirely normal… until a car backfired
and saw 15 years’ service in Northern Ireland, Colombia, Africa, the Balkans and elsewhere. He doesn’t suffer from PTSD, hardly knows of any former colleagues who do and says the only sleepless nights he has had were over an incident in the Falklands when his position was strafed by an Argentinian fighter plane. I believe him.
He is rock steady, happily married with 20-something kids and holding down a highly responsible job in the security business.
Deaths are not common but are dealt with in a very low-key way, with no public outpouring of grief and very little attention.
The Regimental church is St Nicholas in Hereford, a very unassuming Victorian building on the outskirts of the city. It’s as anonymous as everything else to do with the Regiment.
My fictional former officer, Leo Black, is trying to escape his past for a new life in academia after 20 years in the Regiment.
But while attempting to be accepted as a don at Oxford’s Worcester College, he finds fate has other plans for him. In real life, it is true that leaving the Regiment for civvy street is often the hardest thing these men will do.
Although they are often loners and mavericks by nature, while still serving they nevertheless enjoy a huge sense of camaraderie. There is little or nothing in the way of counselling or help in making the adjustment to civilian life and most wouldn’t accept it anyway. They often go into the security business. Celebrities and billionaires love to have