Ken Wharton's latest book on the Northern Ireland Troubles is, as always, written from the perspective of the British soldier. Here he chronicles the worst year of The Troubles - 1972 - a year in which 172 soldiers died as a direct consequence of the insanity that would grip Ulster for almost 30 years. His empathy lies firstly with the men who tramped the streets and countryside of Northern Ireland - but also with the good folk of the six counties who never wanted their beautiful land to be the terrorists' battleground. Ken Wharton is utterly condemnatory of the Provisional IRA and INLA but he certainly pulls no punches in his assessment of the Loyalist paramilitaries and terror gangs who sought to outdo the barbarism of their republican counterparts. Based on the testimony of the men who were there during that terrible year, the author tries to investigate every loss in as much detail as time and space permit, with longer chapters to describe 'Bloody Friday' the appalling tragedy of Claudy and - with the 12-year public inquiry finally over - the terrible events of 'Bloody Sunday'. The Bloodiest Year is written with passion and a detailed knowledge in particular of Belfast and the experience of the ordinary squaddie on the streets. The Troubles have become Britain's forgotten war and so long as he is able, Ken will do his best to keep the memory of Operation Banner alive. 'This is good honest history. Soldiers and civilians alike owe the author a debt of gratitude for telling it like it was.' - Patrick Bishop, best-selling author of 3 Para

As the fiftieth anniversary of the Troubles approaches, Ken Wharton takes a thorough look at the start of the Troubles, the precursors and the explosion of violence in 1969 that would last until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and cost 50,000 casualties and nearly 2,000 civilians' lives across Northern Ireland, the Republic and England. Utterly condemnatory of the Provisional IRA and their ilk, Wharton pulls no punches in his assessment of the situation then and seeks to dismiss apologists today. His sympathy lies first with those tasked with keeping order in the province, but also with the innocent civilians caught up in thirty years of immense bloodshed. Based on the powerful testimony of those who were there at the time, The Troubles is written with passion and detailed knowledge of the experience of the squaddie.

Between 1969 and 1998, over 4,000 people lost their lives in the small country of Northern Ireland. The vast majority of these deaths were sectarian in nature and involved ordinary civilians, killed by the various paramilitary groups. These organisations murdered freely and without remorse, considering life a cheap price to pay in the furtherance of their cause. The words 'Why us?' were uttered by many families whose lives were ripped asunder by The Troubles. Thousands of innocents received a life sentence at the hands of the terrorists; these, then, are their words, the words of those who survived such attacks, and of those left behind. These poignant and tragic stories come from the people who have been forced to live with the emotional shrapnel of terrorism.

Irish Republicanism, like its bloodthirsty Loyalist equivalent, bred and nurtured men of evil; psychopathic men and women who killed without compunction or thought; men and women who thought nothing of robbing innocents of their lives, uncaring of the devastation their actions would inflict on wives and children and parents alike. Yet at the same time, some complain about a `shoot-to-kill' policy, ignoring civil rights and the so-called rule of law. These same concepts were conveniently overlooked by the terrorists of the IRA/INLA and the rest. One is constantly in conflict with the armchair IRA supporters of modern Irish Republicanism who talk of `oppression' and `the struggle for freedom.' But rest assured that whilst there is breath in this author's body, the battle to prevent Gerry Adams and the rest from re-writing history to suit their devious ends will never cease. This book picks up from where Volume 1 left off and describes and analyses the major incidents and stories from the Troubles between the years 1988 and 1990, as Operation Banner continued and Irish Republicanism and Northern Irish Loyalism continued to make the country into a bloody battlefield, where, quite literally, no-one was safe and where violence touched virtually every household in Ulster.

In the early twentieth century there was a war brewing on Britain's doorstep. Northern Ireland was filled with discrimination and suspicion, a sense of foreboding that would soon erupt into full-blown rioting. As the fiftieth anniversary of the Troubles approaches, Ken Wharton takes a thorough look at the start of the Troubles, the precursors and the explosion of violence in 1969 that would last until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. In all, the Troubles cost 50,000 casualties and nearly 2,000 civilians' lives across Northern Ireland, the Republic and England. Utterly condemnatory of the paramilitaries, Wharton pulls no punches in his assessment of the situation then and seeks to dismiss apologists today. His sympathy lies first with those tasked with keeping order in the province, but also with the innocent civilians caught up in thirty years of bloodshed. Torn Apart is an in-depth look at the start of the Troubles, looking at the seminal moments and Northern Ireland today using the powerful testimony of those who were there at the time.

This is Ken Wharton's eagerly awaited new book chronicling the Northern Ireland troubles from the British soldier's perspective. His finest book to date, surpassing his 2011 work "The Bloodiest Year - Northern Ireland 1972", looks at the bloody period of 1973/4 and features many contributions from those who were there besides superb and painstaking research. 'Sir, they're taking the kids indoors' was a cry heard by most if not all of the British soldiers who served on either the 4 month emergency or the 2 year resident battalion tours of Northern Ireland. It refers to the IRA tactic of warning the civilian population in Republican areas of the impending arrival of one of their gunmen. Clearly, as witnessed by the number of civilian deaths among the Catholic population directly or indirectly at the hands of their 'protectors' in the IRA, they were not averse to killing or causing the deaths of Catholics. Once the 'jungle drums' had warned mothers of the approaching death at the hands of the 'widow maker' they would bring their offspring indoors and thus give the IRA the 'moral high ground' of not shooting their own supporters. Once a soldier had called out these words to comrades, the patrol would know that the angel of death was in the area, never far away at the best of times. It would alert them to the fact that they had to be ready for something more lethal than the aimed bricks, Molotov cocktails, dead animals, dog excrement and used sanitary towels which the women of the Republican areas so charmingly saved for the optimum moment. It would herald the approach of a gunman or gunmen and the locals, especially those who revelled in the prospect of 'shooting a Brit' or adherents to the Provisionals' line of killing a soldier a day would have their sadistic hatred sated for a day at least at the sight of British blood staining the streets. One only need consult the roll of honour in any of Ken's books to know that there were many streets in Belfast and Londonderry where the Republican mobs had danced in the blood of a young man from England, Scotland, Wales or even their own Northern Ireland - Spamount Street, New Lodge; Flax Street, Ardoyne; Glenalina Gardens, Ballymurphy; Ardmonagh Gardens, Turf Lodge; Shaw's Road, Andersonstown; Lecky Road, Londonderry and Iniscarn Road, Creggan, Londonderry. All saw British blood stain the tarmac; in some cases on more than occasion. The blinkered Irish-Americans so willingly, and sometimes not so willingly (there were generally IRA supporters on hand to 'encourage' contributions), gave their hard-earned dollars to support these people. The money was collected on the pretext that it was for the 'families of the men behind the wire' or alms for the people 'back home.' Huge sums were raised which, far from providing alms actually provided arms for the perpetration and perpetuation of the misery for over 1.5 million people living in Northern Ireland. But it wasn't just the Irish-Americans - Irish-Australians, Colonel Gaddafi of Libya and the provocateurs of the former USSR also played their part. By focusing exclusively on the 1973-74 period, Ken has been able to write in greater detail than hitherto possible about the British Army and their experience during this bloody and important period of 'the Troubles'.

"Highly recommended read." - SharedTroubles "What Ken is creating is something historians will be using centuries from now."- The Pathfinder Magazine This is the second oral history of the Northern Ireland troubles, following on from A Long, Long War (Helion, 2008), again told from the perspective of the ordinary British soldier. This book looks deeper into the conflict, with new contributors providing revealing stories of the troubles from the back streets of the Ardoyne to the bandit country of South Armagh. In researching this subject Ken Wharton, a former soldier, is now known and trusted by those who served and they are keen for their part in Britain's forgotten war to now be made public. For the first time, he tells the stories of the 'unseen victims'; the loved ones who sat and dreaded a knock at the door from the Army telling them that their loved one had been killed on the streets of Northern Ireland. There are more first hand accounts from the Rifleman, the Private, the Guardsman, the Driver, the Sapper and the Fusilier on the street as they recall the violence, the insults and the shock of seeing a comrade dying in front of them. There is an explosive interview with a soldier who killed an IRA gunman fresh from the murder of two Royal Artillerymen. Building on the huge success of Ken's first book, this second volume will provide plenty of new material for the reader to reconsider afresh the role of Britain's soldiers in Northern Ireland and the fate that so many suffered.

Former soldier Ken Wharton witnessed the troubles in Northern Ireland first hand. Bloody Belfast is a fascinating oral history given a chilling insight into the killing grounds of Belfast's streets. Wharton's work is based on first hand accounts from the soldiers. The reader can walk the darkened, dangerous streets of the Lower Falls, the Divis Flats and New Lodge alongside the soldiers who braved the hate-filled mobs on the newer, but no less violent streets of the 'Murph, Turf Lodge and Andersonstown. The author has interviewed UDR soldier Glen Espie who survived being ambushed and shot by the IRA not once, but twice, and Army Dog Handler Dougie Durrant, who, through the incredible ability of his dog, tracked an IRA gunman fresh from the murder of a soldier to where he was sitting in a hot bath in the Turf Lodge, desperately trying to wash away the forensic evidence. Wharton's reputation for honesty established from previous works has encouraged more former soldiers of Britain's forgotten army to come forward to tell their stories of Bloody Belfast. The book continues the story of his previous work, presenting the truth about a conflict which has sometimes been deliberately underplayed by the Establishment.