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Simon & Schuster has paid around £250,000 for the memoir of a soldier awarded the Military Cross for his part in seizing an Afghanistan town from Taliban forces.
An Ordinary Soldier by Doug Beattie will be published in hardback in October. S&S beat competition from seven other publishers for UK and Commonwealth rights, striking the deal with agent Andrew Lownie.
With his wife believing that he was working behind a desk in Afghanistan, Beattie was tasked with seizing control of Garmsir in September 2006. Two weeks of bloody conflict resulted, with Beattie, a member of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, one of only three men fighting against Taliban forces. The memoir will also chronicle Beattie’s time in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Iraq. It was written in collaboration with ITV news correspondent Philip Gomm.
Kerri Sharp, commissioning editor for non-fiction, described the book as "honest, visceral and intelligent". "It's a book that has the potential to change hearts and minds about the war in Afghanistan," she said. "It has that down to earth appeal that other books in that genre may lack."
Sharp said the book was in the vein of Sniper One by Sgt Dan Mills or Soldier by General Sir Mike Jackson.