The amazing bestseller about a young man driven by adrenalin of the most intense kind, who has cheated death on more than one occasion.
'A remarkable story of life and death in the world’s most dangerous war zones' - Irish Independent.
Category: Biography/Memoir
Themes:
Adventure, Information, Other People and Lands
Pádraig O’Keeffe joined the elite and secretive French Foreign Legion at the age of twenty, seeking a challenge that would absorb his interests and intensity. He served with the Legion in Cambodia and Bosnia, then returned to civilian life, but military habits would not allow him to settle.
His need for intense excitement and extreme danger drove him back to the lifestyle he knew and loved, and using his Legion training, he became a ‘hidden soldier’ by opting for security missions in Iraq and Haiti.
In Iraq he was the sole survivor of an ambush in no man’s land between Abu Ghraib and Fallujah, the most dangerous place on earth.
An intense, exciting and vivid account of extraordinary and sometimes horrific events, Hidden Soldier lifts the veil on the dark and shadowy world of security contractors and what the situation is really like in Iraq as well as other trouble spots.
This bestseller also includes photographs taken by Padraig O’Keeffe while he was a Legionnaire and when he was in Iraq.
PÁDRAIG O'KEEFE is from Cobh, Co Cork. A former Legionnaire, he is now a security expert who works in the most dangerous parts of the world.
Ralph Riegel lives in Cork. He has worked as a journalist for several newspapers including The Cork Examiner, The Evening Echo, The Evening Herald and The Sunday Independent and is the southern correspondent for The Irish Independent. He is also a regular contributor to RTE, BBC and TV3 and to British newspapers including the (London) Independent and The Daily Telegraph.
'He has led an extraordinary life. A great book - a truly incredible story'
'A remarkable story of life and death in the world’s most dangerous war zones'
'It is a fascinating story and takes you to many parts of the world - from Bosnia to Iraq,'
'An incredible life spent in some of the world's most dangerous places - a great read'
'A fine book - it tells a stunning tale very, very well. Padraig O’Keeffe has managed to pack more into 37 years than most people would in several lifetimes'
'The book is at once a taut, fascinating insight into one man's quest to be a noble soldier and a shocking expose of how difficult that is to achieve.'
'A joy to armchair warriors and travellers.'
