The Making of a Legionnaire. My Life in the French Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment

If you've ever wondered what it would be like to join the Foreign Legion and wear the famous képiblanc, Bill Parris' brutally frank account is the closest you can get without handing over your passport at a Legion recruiting centre, Bill Parris served for five years in the RAF Regiment before bitter disappointments in his personal life led him to join the notorious French Foreign Legion. Nothing could have prepared him for the physical and mental challenge he would face; the Legion's harsh training methods have changed little over the years and British recruits with their reputation for desertion were treated with deep suspicion. This is a world full of misfits and renegades, where brute force and fierce discipline are the order of the day. Chillingly violent, funny and moving, Bill Parris reveals the life of a modern legionnaire in all its dirty glory.