Duncan Falconer is a former member of Britain's elite Special Boat Service and 14 Int., Northern Ireland's top-secret SAS undercover detachment. His first book, the bestseller First Into Action, documented the real-life exploits of the SBS.

After more than a decade of operational service he left the SBS and went into the private security circuit. In the past few years, Falconer has operated at length and often alone in places such as Afghanistan, the Nigerian Delta, Palestine, Liberia and throughout Iraq, sometimes writing his books while bullets shower the compound he is staying in.