Des Powell left school with no qualifications and little in the way of formal education. At nineteen he signed up to join the Parachute Regiment.

Famously, the Paras is home to the UK military's second-toughest training regime after the SAS. Des Powell knows all about both. In fact, Des knows SAS selection better than anyone because he's done it twice. In SAS: Trial by Fire he tells the story of those gruelling tests: how Para training turned him into a soldier but, more crucially, how the SAS process turned him into a member of the elite.

Des describes exactly what it takes to be an elite special forces operator. From raw recruit to trained fighting machine - including the heart-breaking moment he was forced to withdraw, only to begin the process again - Des shares the details of his personal journey, itself a tale of prevailing against almost overwhelming odd. He teaches us valuable life skills by taking us deep into the training regime itself: fitness, navigation, endurance, weapons and combat training, survival techniques in hostile climates, the terrifying jungle phase, the dark arts of escape and evasion, the secret of surviving interrogation.

No one's lifted the lid on what it takes to join the SAS and become the best of the best. Until now.