The Blair Mayne Legend

Rogue Warrior of the SAS

A revealing biography of the most decorated soldier of the Second World War

Martin Dillon is also the author of several other books, including The Trigger Men, The Shankill Butchers, God and the Gun and The Dirty War. He has been described by the Irish Times as 'one of the most creative writers of our time'. 
 
 The late Roy Bradford served with Army Intelligence during the Second World War and subsequently worked as a TV producer and writer. He was the author of two novels, Excelsior and The Last Ditch.

More than half a century after his death, Lt Col. Robert Blair Mayne is still regarded as one of the greatest soldiers in the history of military special operations. He was the most decorated British soldier of the Second World War, receiving four DSOs, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'honneur, and he pioneered tactics used today by the SAS and other special operations units worldwide. 
 
 Rogue Warrior of the SAS tells the remarkable life story of 'Colonel Paddy', whose exceptional physical strength and uniquely swift reflexes made him a fearsome opponent. But his unorthodox rules of war and his resentment of authority would deny him the ultimate accolade of the Victoria Cross. 
 
 Drawing on personal letters and family papers, declassified SAS files and records, together with the Official SAS Diary compiled in wartime and eyewitness accounts from many who served with him, the picture emerges of a soldier who, although a flawed hero, was unquestionably one of the most distinctive combatants of the campaigns in the Western Desert and Europe.

Assassins and Terror Bosses in the Ireland Conflict

The Trigger Men

Martin Dillon has won international acclaim for his unique investigative reporting and is regarded as one of the foremost experts on global terrorism. He is the author of 14 books. His bestselling trilogy The Shankill Butchers, The Dirty War and God and the Gun, from his non-fiction work, is regarded as the definitive account of the Ireland conflict. He also co-authored Rogue Warrior of the SAS: The Blair Mayne Legend and The Assassination of Robert Maxwell: Israel's Superspy. He lives in New York.

In The Trigger Men, bestselling author Martin Dillon delves into the dark and sinister world of Irish terrorism and counter-terrorism. Over three decades he has interviewed and investigated some of the most professional, dangerous and ruthless killers in Ireland. Now Dillon explores their personalities, motivations and bizarre crimes.Many of Ireland's assassins learned their trade in fields and on hillsides in remote parts of Ireland, while others were trained in the Middle East or with Basque separatist terrorists in Spain. Some were one-target-one-shot killers, like the sniper who terrorised the inhabitants of Washington State in the autumn of 2002, while others were bombers skilled in designing the most sophisticated explosive devices and booby traps. Another more powerful group of 'trigger men' were the influential figures in the shadows, who were experts in motivating the killers under their control. All of these men, whether they squeezed the trigger on a high-powered rifle, set the timer on a bomb or used their authority to send others out to commit horrific and unspeakable acts of cruelty, are featured in this book. The Trigger Men takes the reader inside the labyrinthine world of terrorist cells and highly classified counter-terrorism units of British Military Intelligence. The individual stories are described in gripping, unflinching detail and show how the terrorists carried out their ghastly work. Dillon also explores the ideology of the cult of the gunmen and the greed and hatred that motivated assassins in their killing sprees. There are penetrating insights into the mindset of the most infamous assassins: their social and historical conditioning, their callousness......

The Dirty War

A real life spy thriller from the definitive writer on Northerm Ireland's tumultuous past and the author of The Shankill Butchers. A non-fiction political thriller, perfect for fans of true spy books including Agent Zigzag.

This excellent book demands the attention of anyone concerned about civil liberties in the United Kingdom

Grippingly written with the pace of a thriller

Makes Cold War duplicity a la Deighton and Le Carre seem positively endearing

Martin Dillon is a native of Belfast although educated in England. He lived in France for a time and returned to Northern Ireland to work as a journalist with the Irish News before joining the Belfast Telegraph. He also worked as a freelance journalist for several national newspapers and American periodicals. In 1973 he wrote Political Murder in Northern Ireland which is regarded as the definitive study of political assassination in Northern Ireland. His second book, Rogue Warrior of the SAS, is a biography of the Second World War hero, Lt. Col. Robert Blair Mayne, and is published by Arrow. The Shankill Butchers which was a bestseller in both Ireland and Britain was the first in his trilogy of books about Northern and Southern Ireland. 
 
Martin Dillon has written plays for BBC radio and television and has been Editor in Northern Ireland of many of the BBC's programmes in the area of current affairs. He now works for the BBC History Unit in London.

___________ 
'This excellent book demands the attention of anyone concerned about civil liberties in the United Kingdom' Guardian 
 
1969 was a year of rising tension, violence and change for the people of Northern Ireland. Rioting in Derry's Bogside led to the deployment of British troops and a shortlived, uneasy truce. The British army soon found itself engaged in an undercover war against the Provisional IRA, which was to last for more than twenty years. 
 
In this enthralling and controversial book, Martin Dillon, author of the bestselling The Shankill Butchers, examines the roles played by the Provisional IRA, the State forces, the Irish Government and the British Army during this troubled period. He unravels the mystery of war in which informers, agents and double agents operate, revealing disturbing facts about the way in which the terrorists and the Intelligence Agencies target, undermine and penetrate each other's ranks. 
 
The Dirty War is investigative reporting at its very best, containing startling disclosures and throwing new light on previously inexplicable events.

Martin Dillon

Gruesome yet compelling and superbly researched

Gruesome territory...the great value of Martin Dillon's carefully researched and readable work is that it enters a world that few journalists have been inclined or able to penetrate

Mr. Dillon recounts in chilling detail the evolution of Murphy's gang and the efforts to catch them. It makes for gripping but altogether terrifying reading

A chilling book, chilling but fascinating ... People on both sides - or some of them - are likely to read Martin Dillon, and to learn from him

Dillon's books are a working lifetime's brave and persistent effort to get information of a kind which, as he frankly says, can be perilous to possess, let alone to reveal

Dillon is recommended reading for anyone wishing to understand the complexities of British - Irish politics. He stands alone as one of the most creative writers of our time

A Case Study of Mass Murder

The bestselling investigation of one of Northern Ireland's most brutal and infamous murder cases 
 
'Makes for gripping but altogether terrifying reading' Washington Times 
 
'Dillon is recommended reading for anyone wishing to understand the complexities of British-Irish politics. He stands alone as one of the most creative writers of our time' Irish Times 
________________________________ 
'This was the ultimate way to kill a man.' 
 
In the 1970s, in some of the most violent days of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, a group of Protestant paramilitaries embarked on a spree of indiscriminate murder in the Shankill area of Belfast, leaving thirty Catholics dead. Their leader was Lenny Murphy: a fanatical Unionist whose childhood was marked by sectarian violence, Murphy swore revenge on all Catholics, and with his gang wreaked havoc onto an already fractured city. 
 
Not for the squeamish, The Shankill Butchers is a horrifying and detailed account of one of the most brutal series of murders in the history of Northern Ireland - a phenomenon whose real nature has been obscured by the troubled and violent context from which it sprang.

Martin Dillon

Praise for The Shankill Butchers

Gruesome yet compelling and superbly researched

Gruesome territory...the great value of Martin Dillon's carefully researched and readable work is that it enters a world that few journalists have been inclined or able to penetrate

Mr. Dillon recounts in chilling detail the evolution of Murphy's gang and the efforts to catch them. It makes for gripping but altogether terrifying reading

Gruesome yet compelling and superbly researched

Gruesome territory...the great value of Martin Dillon's carefully researched and readable work is that it enters a world that few journalists have been inclined or able to penetrate

Mr. Dillon recounts in chilling detail the evolution of Murphy's gang and the efforts to catch them. It makes for gripping but altogether terrifying reading

Gruesome yet compelling and superbly researched

Gruesome territory...the great value of Martin Dillon's carefully researched and readable work is that it enters a world that few journalists have been inclined or able to penetrate

Mr. Dillon recounts in chilling detail the evolution of Murphy's gang and the efforts to catch them. It makes for gripping but altogether terrifying reading

Books by Martin Dillon

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