Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A sensitive diary of soldiering & inner city police work, 29 Feb 2004
Author Simon Bywater is a decent person and a talented writer. To this end, "Forced Out," is a sensitive diary of the hardships of elite soldiering and the trauma of inner city police work. Bywater provides an impressive narrative of the demanding commando training that the legendary British Royal Marines undergo. Moreover, the author explains his transition to the police and his career path to the Moss Side of Manchester, a vicious crime ridden assignment that triggers his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) meltdown. This is not a gung-ho journal. Bywater enters the British Royal Marines under the tender age of 17. He goes into great detail describing the day to day demands of the vigorous 30-week commando boot camp. Make no mistake...British Royal Marines are tough and maintain the same proud tradition of American Navy Seals, Army Green Beret and Marine Recon units. Like most young recruits, Bywater travels the world for the first time as a
soldier and waxes poetic on the beauty of numerous foreign landscapes and sunsets. Eventually Bywater marries. However, once he weds his dedication to the hardships of soldiering diminishes. Hence, his transition to the police. The author then meticulously
outlines the faults of the police (limited budgets and heavy work loads) which forces the silent illness of PTSD to disable him. This is a well-written book. Fortunately, Bywater is
on his way to recovery and offers a touching tribute to his wife Mel. Recommended. Bert Ruiz
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a very personal account that helps us understand, 9 Nov 2003
Simon Bywater's Forced Out is a deeply moving biography. It is gently written. You get to know Simon as he goes into the service, and your knowledge of him and what he faces in warfare gives you an insight to what many of our young men must be going through today. It is easy for a country to send our young men off to foreign places, and then when the need for them to be a soldier is over, we detachedly presume, they walk away and it's all behind them. Having had members of the various wars in my family, I know that was not the case, but few reveal what is locked up inside them.Simon's book gives us a very personal account of what he went through and how he could not walk away from it like flipping a switch. His writing is easy to read as proses, it is harder to take as a human being knowing this is not fiction but quite real. He makes you feel, understand and end result is you are so sad - not only for him but the thousands and thousand of young men now facing the same path. Wonderful job, something everyone should read.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Forced Out, 29 Jan 2003
Forced Out is a book anyone can easily get into, its a book you don`t want to put down, you relive the times with Simon, sitting in a cold, wet slit trench, sleep depravation, and all the other hardships that come with the hardest basic military training in the world.The ultimate prize, something that cannot be bought, cannot be inherited, something that has to be earnt, the coveted,"Green Beret", and once you have it, you become one of a very elite, close knit family. I`m not going to give too much away, all I can say is, it will be one of the best books you`ll purchase, and as a bonus, you get an insight to Simons time in the Police force, but this book goes deeper than the Corps and the Police Force, it deals with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)which has gone unrecognised for far too long.All I can say is, "order your copy now"
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