One Up: A Woman in Action with the SAS: A Woman in the SAS

This book is a first person account of the personal experiences of the woman who lived a life out of the ordinary. It offers the reader the reality of her personal life from her upbringing and how it lead her to serve in the British forces, her training for special operations and clandestine operations in Northern Ireland during some of the worst years of its history. This is a well-written book that offers the reader facts, intrigue and humour in rapid fire. Sarah Ford offers the reader superb value for money with this book and could easily offer us another. Enjoy!

"One up - A woman's action with the SAS" by Sarah Ford is interesting, but not particularly well written - the journalist who worked with Ford on the script doesn't seem to have done her job all that well. I didn't find Ford likeable, but I assume she couldn't care less - she comes across as a capable, determined woman succeeding and gaining acceptance in an environment where this isn't the norm. The portrayal of the `Det' and the SAS as hard-working, hard-drinking professionals with a penchant for schoolboy pranks at each other's expense comes across as odd, but then what do I know? An elite evolves its own rules, after all...

Sarah Ford's two-fisted journey from a London council flat to the WRENS (Royal Navy) to her undercover action with the Special Air Service in Northern Ireland is an amazing odyssey, and her narrative keeps the pages turning. This is one tough broad, brought up on the mean streets of London, and her poignant struggle to escape the despair and poverty of the bottom rungs of British society and lead a productive life is truly inspiring.What is really amazing about this coming-of-age story, however, is the unusual direction it sudenly takes, leading her away from the Royal Navy and into the shadowy world of the SAS, where she risks her life almost daily in the deadly rowhouses of Northern Ireland. This is an angle on "The Troubles" you don't see much of. Highly recommended.