No products in the basket.
- This topic has 33 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 7 months ago by
.
- Posts
… For those who like TRUE spook stuff, MI6/DEA/CIA, Russian Mafia, aircraft, illegal arms for drugs, a British MP and Minister involved, (as the Good Politico who kick-starts the UN and the US into looking into this guy!) with more than a dash of US, UK and Russian politics:
I am almost done reading “Operation Involvement” subtitled “The Wold’s Most Wanted Criminal” by Damien Lewis, always a good storyteller. I bought the UK paperback version from “The Works” Grimsby store, just £3.99. I buy a lot of stuff there, spend the time that our Gert takes in several nearby clothes shops until she comes in to drag me away from another enjoyable pastime. If I find something good, I buy a cold or hot drink, go and sit on a nearby bench and once again am dragged away. if the book is carp, I take it to Charity.
Steve, audible is available from Amazon, which is the US published version and is called “Operation Manhunt”. It is a really true story and has everything you need for something that would make a really good movie. The Brit central figure is a middle-aged ex-SAS guy who has become a LEGAL shipper of arms, and knows the ILLEGAL Russian quite well. The Brit has lived in Africa for years, running everything except drugs in mostly old WWII and ’70’s Russian aircraft. His only two aircraft meet with accidental destruction and his business falls over. He is targeted by the DEA after POTUS Bush declares the Russian billionaire as second only to Osama bin Laden as Most Wanted. The ex-SAS guy starts to work to catch this guy – his team is another Brit who knows the FARC terrorists in Columbia (who are desperate for weapons) and the Russian: two Guatemalans who were arrested by the DEA for bringing massive amounts of Cocaine out of Columbia, know the game and have been “turned” and recruited by the DEA. The setup is along and painful journey, but interesting for the spotlights shone upon US DEA practices and their bafflement at being faced with a Brit in his Fifties, who ends up taking over the project.
I see a movie with Daniel Craig as the ex-SAS guy. Michael Peña as the younger of the Guatemalans, Antonia Banderas as the older.
A really good read, that no one could make up: might see such a tale as fiction, but partly verifiable via US FOI.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Nice one Bob, it’s £3 on The Works site and I can have it delivered to the most convenient branch for me, in a garden centre, for nothing. It’s a nice little back lane national speed limit route for a while, lovely corners as well. Bagged a couple of others as well.
Enjoy it Nolan, a fascinating read.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.I’m sure I will Bob, currently reading SPQR. Very good but not a light read, lots of names and dates and I’ve never been good at those. Only managed to nail my nieces birthday last year without prompting from mum, she’s 11 this year. ?
I do love a damian Lewis book bob, belos is a screen shot from my own Audible library. Churchill secret warriors is my favourite of his. Zero bravo six is a goodn too.
I listened to Cobra Gold on the way here. It wasn’t his best, but still made the drive fly.
Currently listening to Arnhem by Anthony Beevor, which is good. In between I fitted in The singularity trap by Denis Tylor (not the snooker legend lol) . A decent syfy book
. I like to altonate between syfy and factual war books.
Bob is thst book about Victor Boot? As I have read DL operation relentless, the search for the works most dangerous man.
The titles sound so alike.
Yes Steve, Victor Bout. Proper Russian Mafia guy, hell of a chase he gave them. Millions of murders carried out with weapons he supplied, several British soldiers killed by weapons he supplied. A danger at both ends of his flights: illegal arms in, Heroin and coke out, ended up in Europe and America, funded criminal syndicates and African rebel armies who employed child soldiers and attacked villages, mutilating, raping and killing. Stated in his defence that his aircraft just flew in stuff, he never knew the cargoes. Proved wrong by wiretaps and phone taps; his own words gave the lie to that. “Never fly empty” was his watchword. Brilliant entrepreneur, in any other legal work he might still have succeeded and become wealthy.
I intend to download more Damian Lewis books as soon as I finish Conn Iggulden’s “The Falcon of Sparta”. I read SciFi, History fact or fiction, and war books, also fiction but mostly fact. I cannot stand vampire, werewolf, wizard and witches books. Impossible, unbelievable crap, IMHO. Show me one that ever lived! The original “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, first published 1831, was a great book and I still read it again from time to time. Everyone who copied that theme, made a dog’s dinner of it. Conn Iggulden has written some great historical books and so has Bernard Cornwell.
I don’t know if you have read any Andy McNab stuff, but I read Bravo Two Zero and was impressed, until an old mate who was in 22SAS at the same time as that Op, told me there were lies in it. Like, McNab was the one to run away from a firefight and not the guy who he said had run away: he was KIA. Apparently McNab is just tolerated at Hereford, but very unpopular when he takes journos there.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.If you get a chance, there’s a film out at the moment – American Made, with Tom Cruise. It’s a hoot. Take it with a pinch of salt – even the director is quoted in Wiki as saying “Liman has described the film as : a fun lie based on a true story.”
I knew a few SB lads that’s said alot of it is exaggerated. They didn’t say exaggerated but I’ll give Andy the benifit of writers embellishment.
If you like brazo two zero, (never read it) but watched the film (I was serving then when it aired), and working close to a few SB guys put me off the book. But I’m sure you will like DLs telling of zero six bravo, in how close the Misson code name was to the original mess, and the close correlations with its outcome two.
I won’t spoilt, but after you read it, you can find leaked usaf footage form the air support and hear the lads on the gourd coming over the comms. It really set to book off for me, and gave me chills to put at least one voice to the words.
Though if you like WW2 commando stuff, anything about Anders larson is a must. A real hero of mine. And I server in the commando group named after him. Something I only found out about 18 years after leaving it.
He isn’t a hero cos I found that out, he is a hero cos of his life story, actions and because both the SAS and SBS still both claim him as their founder. Which is both true considering he was one of the original commandos that brought about the RMC, SAS and SB. Amazing life. Well amazing in the wrong term, living to an old age with grand children in peace is Amazon, his would be action packed and unselfish.
He shone bright for a short time. The regular army hated him, and treat him like shit, which is something else I love about him.
I was protected from most of the Regular Army BS by being in the AAC, whose officers and SNCO’s were almost all Technical and were mostly human. There was one old Major in Admin, never forgot the guy, ex-Guards and totally out of place with us. He ran an Austin A40, an old banger which was a vintage heap even in ’69. I was asked by my CO to take round a collection across the A/c Workshop, for a WOII’s wife who had been running the Welfare organisation within the unit and was leaving the unit as her old man was retiring from the Army after 5 years in the A/c Workshop. She was loved by everybody: from the CO down to every squaddie, their wives and gf’s. Collected a huge amount of cash from everyone, with a long list of checkable names and amounts, left him to last.
I received a bloody khaki-brained monologue about how he never expected anyone to provide him a leaving present for doing his duty. I reminded him that this was simply a wife of a WOII who had carried out a great deal of work in her own time, to provide help and care for members of the unit. I also told him it was completely voluntary and he did not have to give a penny. He calmed down and asked how much the CO had put in. I told him DM 200! He matched it! I returned to the CO with the list.
“Did you visit Major Bxxxxx?”   – “Yes Sir, last of all.”   (smiling at this) “Did he give anything”  – “200 Marks, Sir.”
“WHAAAT? How did you manage that?”   – “Told him YOU gave 200 Sir.”  His response was unprintable.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Lol Bob, Reminds me of my kids last junior school head. She was good at her job but had zero people skills.
I wad in one day raising an issue re my girl, and the head mistress had to leave the room to sort out an issue. She came back in fuming saying she was banning all parents from the grounds as they only ever bring issues to the school and no praise.
I answered her with two points 1. Don’t continue doing stuff that will annoy the parents, and 2, you get praise evey month, via a check for about 6k.
She looked at me like she never seen the paypacket was the reward for a good job done.
She was a tough old bird, and was there about 25 years, turning it from a joke of a school to a to prayed one. I’m sure she had a bit of a breakdown in trh end and was pensioned off. She went very erratic the last two years.
Different line or work, but basically the same story I feel. A RSM is hardly not being rewarded for his time served. He is basically being paid highly for not leaving tbh.
Two educational events resonate with that Steve, with my son and his son, both dyslexic. His last teacher told my missus at a school Open Day “He’ll never amount to anything!” My Gert dare not say anything, she was so mad and wanted to punch the woman. A few years later, the same teacher was in our local Tesco and Gert pointed her out. I confronted her, made a big scene of it and told her that the lad she had insulted like that, had just passed C&G in Electrics with 2 Distinctions and the rest all Merits. “Therefore the fault was not with our son, but with the people supposed to educate him! You did not do your job properly, a Technical College did! You are an obviously incompetent Educator, should have been shelf-stacking in here!”
I went to Open days at my gson’s Academy, his dad being at work late most nights, and was told by his Form Tutor that she saw him as a mechanic, “nothing more!” I told her I had been a mechanic and a Motor Engineer, why did she look down upon mechanics, I probably earned much more as a workshop foreman and manager than she did?” I also told her that he was not getting the “One to One” extra that the school had promised, to deal with his dyslexia. Then I told her that he would be exactly what he wanted to be, because it was his last year at this crappy Academy and was accepted by Grimsby Institute Technical College for an Electrical Installations course of 3 years. Did she know that?
“No, I didn’t.”  – “You are Careers Officer for this Academy’s students. That you don’t know that, proves to me that neither you, nor this Academy, are doing your jobs correctly.” Gson is currently on his last exams and expects to be a Qualified Leccy soon.
Educators who are not good enough, or don’t care enough about the kids in their charge, should be sorted out. Fortunately, his engineering and IT tutors believed in him at that Academy, they gave him great support.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Very similar tale to my son, the school promised all the help, but never delivered, when we put them on the spot they just wanted to send him to the local college.
They was that much in a hurry to get rid of him they put him through his maths gcses a year early. (it’s the only thing he excelled in at school) .
Now he has just finished his final school year in college. He spent two days a week working on day release at a pet store and a body shop, which he liked, (as they both bunged him a few quid each week) , and he had small classes with other dyslexic and mildly autism kids, so he got some decent 1 on 1, he defiantly matured as a person, being out of the school. I didn’t mind him not sticking around just to fail the rest of school exams, as that is no good mentally for him. So at least he got somthing out of his last year of school.
He has decided he wants to do catering after the summer. But his grandad wants him in the family business, property. I told the FiL let him do the catering, as the business isn’t going anywhere.
Grandad is under orders to not even mention the business to him. My lad knows it’s there, but I don’t want grandad to add pressure. Plus it’s a decent thing to learn, and he isn’t just being given a job for the sake of it.
Though I have no issues with him ending up working for the biz. I’d rather he got some external experiances first.
He is our 4th to finish school, all the rest did well, and all at 18 have been offered open ended round the world tickets, non have taken us up on them. I’d like him to be the first. I have a feeling he will as he talk about Canada and Aus a lot. Unlike me, he’d happily go and stay at some relatives house he has never met. I think today kids think if you say hi on FB your friends.
Though at may age, I don’t want to be sleeping on couches or back packing. 20-25 years ago i suppose I would of.
Yes my No.2 gson matured at Grimsby College and developed faster: started with Mechanical Engineering, changed very quickly into Electrical Installations, as his dad has connections there and he realised there were more opportunities. He is still doing 2 days at an Engineering place, dad takes him Monday and Friday mornings and I pick him up both evenings. I used to see more of his 24 yo IT networking/security cousin, but only see him once a week now. No.2 I see a lot of, he does quite a lot of work here for us. So I have got close to him, but I always ask his dad about work and college matters, don’t believe in interfering and would not try to advise him against dad’s wishes. My son has brought up him and his sister as a single parent from ages 2 and 4: doesn’t need me to interfere without asking. No.2 has loads of mates, always out with them, but does not drink at all. No.1 has very few mates outside family, just two from college days, but he and No. 2 get on well.
I didn’t think either would travel, but now and again No. 2 throws me one out of the box. Yesterday he suddenly said that he wants to work in the UK for a couple of years, then move to Switzerland to work, intending to learn German at night school. I was gobsmacked, discovered that he had researched work, pay and living costs there. This lad has always been deep, but only shows it now and again. very big lad, very quiet, only talks when he has something to say.
It’s been fascinating watching the 4 of them grow and develop. All different, all very close to each other as siblings or cousins. I love the fact that our very bright grammar school 13 yo always gravitates to No.2 gson at family do’s. They always have heads together, have been close since she was a baby.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Well having a some of 24, 22 and a girl of 19, I’m sure relatively soon there is going to be a grand child popping up. So it will all start again. Hopefully not too soon!
Back to books, I’m almost though with Arnhem by Anthony Beevor, and I’d love to see a remake of a bridge to far using this books info as a template. It’s very good.
I don’t know what it is, but when I’m away in hot places, I just love walking anywhere, shearing being burnt and listening to war stories. I like then at home, but when I’m away, they seem to come to life more. But this one has been good. It was a slow starter, but now with just an hour to go, I’m getting that sad feeling I get when a good book is wrapping up.
The thing I like about true war books, Churchills secret warroirs is a great example of this, is you’ll spend a good few hours building an emotional attachment to the men, for them to be snuffed out. You get a bit sad, but soon your invested in the next person only for them to die and so on.
No other type of book spends time building up connections, just to fro them a tenth of the way through. By love i mean find it sad, but so real. Even fiction war books, based on fact don’t do this, they always have a lead role that navigates the story from start to finish.
It just shows how bad that war was. Well any -war- battle tbh. Alot is just based on luck.
Know exactly what you mean, I get involved with characters in a good book. If it’s a military story, and there are parallels with some of my own experiences, I get totally lost in the story and have empathy for the characters, willing them to be successful and win through. When that doesn’t happen, I feel a downer. As you say, does not happen with fictional stories, because they are plotted by an author, to a timeline. Action is not like that: it’s totally unpredictable and luck does play a big part.
As for being a granddad, well I have no doubt that will happen for you. For me, it was amazing. I was first grandparent to hold my No.1 gson and my son and daughter decided to make that a family tradition. No other grandparent was allowed near them until I had held them and I remember each one, all different as babies as they are now they are older. It’s also true that you have more time with them than you have with your sons and daughters, although you sound like a real family man and have a lot of contact with yours.
Being injured and disabled in my 50’s gave me some time to be with my grandbrats more I guess too. I had to be dad as well as granddad in some ways to the eldest, whose scumbag dad left when he was a baby. We are always close, although he needs my advice less as he gets older. It’s maybe also true that, if you have childhood problems with a parent, it can make you more determined to treat your own kids and grandkids, as you would have wished to be treated. Certainly true for me, after the abuse I suffered from my mam. I tried to show the kids what life should be like and I hope it worked: certainly we are a very close family.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Your last words are so true bob, my old man’s answer to everything was his fists. I decided (not sure when) that I’d be the compleat opposite.
Only my eldest lad once I can say I had to lift a proper hand to once. He is 24 now, and said since he deserved it.
Now their have been many times over the years, when I’ve had to go for a pint before I’ve exploded. With the kids and the wife lol.
I just never wanted the kids to do what I said out of fear, more respect. Saying all that my youngest thst has just turned 10 (there’s a gap) , is probably more like a gran child, given she is spoilt by all their siblings and knows how to push buttons. She still hasn’t decided if she is ‘grown up’ or ‘a teen’ , all I know is she can’t half stretch my temper. I’ve mellowed as ive aged, and she gets away with far more than the others ever did.
I think as im getting older, I just want a quiet life. Things thst once would of annoyed me, I just don’t care about anymore.
I also learn very early on, that every battle isn’t worth fighting. As if you set out your stall like that, life will just turn out to be one long war. Pick your battles (both with kids and wife’s), as then they know when dads head fall off something is wrong. So my advice to anyone, is pick your battles, don’t get bogged down in tedium.
Grand-children are great. Spoil the kids rotten, give them more freedoms, give them a major sugar rush, then hand them back in time for their parents to take all the consequences.
I call it revenge time for all the angst their parents caused during their own teenage years. e.g. sons pushing boundaries to their limits, and moody, tantrum-prone daughters.
Lol Ed. My FiL for the first ten years I knew him would turn his nose up at the thought of taking a child mcdonalds or knocking up fisjfingures etc…
Now he has many grandchildren, and has them on mass twice a week. He feeds them all kinds of shit we wouldn’t. And they come back bouncing. Asking why we don’t eat turkey dinosaurs etc. . Hmmm….. You old guys are all hypocrits lol.
Lol Ed. My FiL for the first ten years I knew him would turn his nose up at the thought of taking a child mcdonalds or knocking up fisjfingures etc…
Now he has many grandchildren, and has them on mass twice a week. He feeds them all kinds of shit we wouldn’t. And they come back bouncing. Asking why we don’t eat turkey dinosaurs etc. . Hmmm….. You old guys are all hypocrits lol.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
