The SAS is world famous, and famously secretive. 

But who are they really? What are they like?

A new book, GEEZERS: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL: ON CAMP WITH THE SAS allows the reader to step inside the closed regiment garrison in Hereford.

Monica Lavers tells the inside stories of the men who serve in 22 Special Air Service Regiment - as they were told to her and no holds barred. 

"This story won't be told from the point of view of the huge, hulking, handsome heroes in an action movie ... this book tells you the bits that didn't make it into the fairytale."

Given authority to publish by the Ministry of Defence, the book has been granted EPAW clearance from the Defence and Security Media Advisory service. It is unique - the first of its kind to give a behind-the-scenes look at how Special Forces soldiers live, work and play when they are not on tour. 

"After I had been on camp at HQ for a few weeks, it filtered down that someone new was here as a fixture, and the geezers were keen to take a closer look; I thought of their interest in me as an animal fascinated by a mirror. It was like any relationship founded on on a shared situation; gradually the men stopped giving me a wide berth and started joining me on my table..."

This isn't Ant Middleton or Andy McNab - the book tells a compassionate, funny and brutally honest account of what the life of an elite soldier looks like to an outsider. 

From their personal relationships with each other and their wives and girlfriends, to what they eat, think, do and say, it's told straight from the men themselves.

Lavers worked as a civilian in support services with the garrison for three years from 2015-2018, a job she took after burning out from her previous corporate career. 

She got to know the 'geezers' (as they call themselves) through talking with and listening to the men, and presents them as people rather than the macho myth. 

A female civilian's view of an almost exclusively male military world, this memoir is refreshing in its honesty. 

Monica Lavers is a pseudonym. She is available for interview or comment, or to write features. 

GEEZERS: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL: ON CAMP WITH THE SAS
ISBN: 978-1-903-36044-6
Hardback, £16.99 (also available in ebook)
Publication: 15th April 2021