Aftershock

Reviews / Votes

Green has documented the hidden cost of modern war in a way no other author has ever even attempted. Intelligent, sensitive, courageous and tenacious, he has spent two years listening to the harrowing stories of former soldiers struggling to cope with PTSD - and hearing how the military and medical establishment have, for the most part, failed them. The MoD should hang their heads in shame if this book does not become required reading at every staff college. Aftershock hasn't come a moment too soon -- James Fergusson, author * A Million Bullets * Compelling, humbling and hugely inspiring accounts from the real heroes of our era. We have a duty to understand what these men have given on our behalf -- Bear Grylls Intelligently written and agreeably unsensational... One of the many strengths of this nuanced book is the sympathy and compassion [Green] brings to the experiences of soldiers... [A] revealing and thought-provoking study -- Trevor Royle * Sunday Herald * Unsentimental but horribly affecting... mixing journalistic rigour with historical investigation [and written] in prose thrilling enough for a bestselling novel -- Alexander Larman * Observer * Compelling and instructive... [This is] a work of integrity and substance, and as so much of it touches on interdepartmental matters it ought to be read by every minister -- Allan Mallinson * Spectator * An urgent manifesto... [Green's] book sharply exposes the faults in the current system... The stories Green has collected are so powerful because they are some of the only means we have of measuring the true scale of PTSD in Britain -- Joe Shute * Daily Telegraph * A thoughtful, unsensational account of a significant problem -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times * This is a most compelling book which tells the story of those who have suffered so much in the conduct of operation to protect our security. Mental health pressures need to move centre stage in our priorities - now! -- Sir Richard Dannatt, former General Chief of Staff Green tells the uncomfortable story of our veterans' journey from the frontline of combat to the reality of return brilliantly via first-person accounts and interviews with former combatants and their families, military experts, physicians and psychologists * Bookseller * If we expect our lives and freedoms to be protected we have a duty to those who do this. As a society, as people, surely we must take responsibility for the bodies, minds, and indeed souls of those who fight for us? Aftershock makes this point again and again, powerfully and compellingly -- Justine Hardy, trauma therapist, author * The Wonder House * A thought-provoking enquiry into PTSD. It contains important insights into a problem that is rarely covered in any but the most superficial way. I highly recommend it -- Adrian Weale * Literary Review * I've never come across something that really tells the truth about war in this way... an amazing book -- Sharmaine Lovegrove * Monocle Radio * [An] outstanding study of the psychological wounds affecting British military personnel adapting to life at home after serving in the country's most recent wars * New Statesman * A moving and illuminating book [that] reports on the lives, struggles and triumphs of returned combat veterans and their families -- Bryan Doerries, author * The Theatre of War * A sometimes harrowing but ultimate hopeful book about PTSD and its effect on the lives of soldiers and medical staff on their return from war zones. Some of the stories in the book stayed with me long after I had finished reading -- Bob McDevitt, Best Books of 2016 * Herald *