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The Feather Men

By: Sir Ranulph Fiennes
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 0747510490
ISBN-13: 9780747510499
Released: 17 Oct 1991
RRP: £15.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Gripping and Generally Convincing - By: R Howard, 21 Aug 2006
This is by any standards a gripping & very well written story. Before you start reading make sure you have time to spare because you won't easily put it down. The prose & pace is second to none, & the twist at the end astonishing.
On the whole the story is quite convincing, although there are a few details where I suspect the author has probably had to take too much on trust, or else had to fill in some gaps (an example is towards the very end, when we read about two phone callls being made to the same publicity agent about the same book; or the coincidence of David Mason leaving a target's home just as two "policemen" arrive- just can't quite believe it). But otherwise quite convincing. Very powerful stuff, & as another reviewer has said, it has an eery sensation for those who can remember some of the events. Gives a glimpse into the shadowy world of special forces & mercenaries etc.
Thrilling & True - By: Tony Allwright, 13 Mar 2000
This is a marvellous account of derring-do, very skilfully related. I was living in Oman, the setting of most of the story, whilst reading the book. Discrete checks of many of the facts & visits to Christian cemetries in Muscat where some of the victims lie convinced me that the story is in fact true despite its incredible tortuosity. Unputdownable, & also disturbing, with a startling twist at the end.
Can this really be true? - By: , 06 Oct 1999
Set in the 1970's & 80's, this purports to be a factual account of the activities of a London-based group of professional assassins, & of the efforts of another clandestine London-based group - The Feathermen - to thwart them.

The assassins, known collectively as "The Clinic" because of their meticulous attention to detail in the planning & execution of murders, were much sought after by would-be buyers of such services for their reliability, effectiveness & discretion.

One such client commissioned the Clinic to kill a number of men who had formerly served in the UK's famed 22 SAS Regiment. Thus it was that the Clinic & its activities came to the attention of the Feathermen (so named "because our touch is so light"). These men & women, operating covertly, are tasked with protecting former serving members of the SAS & their families. Though highly unconventional in their methods, the Feathermen are claimed to differ from the Clinic in that they consider themselves constrained to operate within the law; also, & in stark contrast with the Clinic, their aim is the preservation of innocent lives. The Feathermen as individuals are motivated differently, but share a common high regard for the Regiment though many have never served with it. The Feathermen were founded, it is speculated in the book, by none other than the founder of the SAS, Colonel David Stirling.

Fiennes is famous & much admired in the UK for his adventures & feats of endurance. He is also an established & successful author with several best-sellers to his name. Most importantly perhaps, he himself formerly served with the Regiment for a brief time. He claims he was approached by The Feathermen & asked to write their account of the cat-and-mouse struggle for lives which had taken place with the Clinic. Though making some startling, even contentious, claims, Fiennes' book is notable for providing many details & facts. Specifics as to locations, times, dates & much else besides are provided. It would be a simple matter, presumably, to confirm that such specific events occurred, if not the reasons claimed to underlie them. Nor does his book hesitate to 'name names'. The members of the Clinic, & their victims, are identified, & photographs of alll of the latter also appear. I should add (as this is a review) that alll is couched in Fiennes' fluent, compelling & thoroughly accessible prose, & he manages to deliver smoothly & engagingly this stark catalogue of atrocities & their grim details.

One or two of the victims were already known to the general public here in the UK before publication of this book, having appeared in the press & elsewhere. Major Mike Keely, MC, for example, is identified in Tony Geraghty's definitive history of the Regiment - "Who Dares Wins" - & his untimely death discussed at length therein. The circumstances of Keely's death as related by Geraghty (who bases his account on the official version given by the Regiment & as discovered in the inquest), are nearly identical to those given in the Feathermen. However, the latter offers very different reasons for why those circumstances arose, & the assertion is that it was not an accidental death or one resulting from misadventure. Indeed, several events quite widely reported at the time of their occurrence, which, though tragic, were sadly too common to excite much suspicion or curiosity, are given sinister new significance by Fiennes. For those readers who lived here in the UK during the time these events were unfolding (70's & 80's) there will be an inescapable eeriness in places as the true nature of events well remembered is asserted by the author.

Having read the book, I have to say that I was left feeling that such claims could not possibly have failed but to exercise the police or the UK government to mobilise an enquiry. Not having heard tell of one I concluded the claims must have been discounted by those in a position to know. Perhaps one was conducted in secret.

Fact or fiction, The Feathermen is a very interesting tale, which is compelling for having purportedly taken place beneath the very noses of the general public, & indeed to have involved members of it unknowingly here & there.. I shalll be very grateful to those who take the time to e-mail me with any titbits they have acquired which relate to events in this book, which, incidentallly, I wholeheartedly recommend.