We find our "hero" before he'd come under the sunny influence of Pam or met the exotic Lydia. In fact, before he had started the journey that was to lead to Mohave Valley, Arizona. He was serving Queen and Country (in his own way) together with several others of his ilk, having been called back off leave as the situation in Northern Ireland has degenerated to the point where their particular talents are called for. They belong to the 16th Independent Parachute Brigade - The Para's - Cromwell's Men. The idea is to exercise "The Hard Option" and let them loose on the less amenable of the local populace, with the minimum restraint, and when the time was right, to withdraw them as a conciliatory gesture. Obviously the more barbarous their conduct, the greater the mollifying effect of their withdrawal. And if things did get out of hand there was always a convenient scapegoat, or Bank's Cross, an Army camp not to be found on any survey map. And then we have the following cast of characters: Our hero, and leader, Corporal Eddie Jackson, the dancer, the would be poet from the slums of the Black Country, who had his own ideas about keeping the peace in Northern Ireland. His only loyalty was to those in his section, the IRA a minor inconvenience, officers dismissed as "Politicians in uniform," and his only mission to get what he could out of life and to survive. Jim Butcher, a smile on his face, a Sporting Life in his pocket, and larceny in his heart. Jim's gift for procurement is matched only by one Geoff Daly the self- styled cockney lothario, but unfortunately Geoff was transferred to another section whose commander, Willie Baxter, did not share Eddie's enthusiasm for Geoff's particular talents. Although to keep his hand in, Geoff did find time to "save" a television set from a showroom that had been firebombed by the IRA. But Geoff soon has other things on his mind. Not forgetting the others, Fred Thompson from Manchester, half comedian- half Rottweiler, the much married Alistair Hamilton and, for a little light relief, there was always Eddie's nemesis, Lieutenant Richard "Ricky" Pike who came from the same town but via a different route. But political correctness is raising its ugly head in the anything but ugly shape of Norah Dell. Someone in the ethereal heights of the Ministry of Defense (Army) saw fit to add to their trials by encumbering them with Norah, a reporter from Boston Newsweek, a magazine owned by an old Boston Irish American family with new money but old prejudices. Considering this, everything was going, if not exactly smoothly, with enough controlled mayhem to make the time pass, and there was always the not unwelcome attention of Norah Dell, who arranged for Eddie and his cohorts to be invited to a rather special cocktail party, (and Eddie to something extra special). Then Geoff not only broke the cardinal rule, but with a heady mixture of, confession of a betrayed love, calls on friendship and even the loan of a sports coat, involved Eddie, which led primarily to Eddie's personal peace process with the local IRA and when this went tragically wrong, an orgy of havoc resulted in them making the acquaintance of Banks' Cross, an Army camp not to be found on any survey map or mentioned in any written orders.