OLLIE OLLERTON CO-HOSTS SAS: WHO DARES WINS ALONGSIDE ANT MIDDLETON, JASON FOX and MARK BILLINGHAM. THIS IS HIS INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY
Where is your break point?
Is it here? Facing the gruelling SAS selection process on one leg, with a busted ankle and the finish line nowhere in sight? Or here? Under heavy fire from armed kidnappers while protecting journalists en route to Baghdad. Or is it here? At the bottom of a bottle, with a family in pieces, unable to adapt to a civilian lifestyle, yearning for a warzone?
Ex-Special Forces soldier and star of TV's SAS: Who Dares Wins, Ollie Ollerton has faced many break points in his life and now he tells us the vital lessons he has learnt. His incredible story features hardened criminals, high-speed car chases, counter-terrorism and humanitarian heroics - freeing children from a trafficking ring in Thailand.
Ollie has faced break points in his personal life too, surviving a freak childhood attack, run-ins with the law as a teenager rebelling against a broken home, his self-destructive battles with alcohol and drug addiction, and his struggles with anxiety and depression. His final redemption as an entrepreneur and mental health charity ambassador has seen him overcome adversity to build a new and better life. 'Everyone has the capacity for incredible achievement, because it's only when it's crunch time, when you're down to your last bullet - when you're at break point - that you find out who you really are.'
My Review:
Ollie was not the child you wanted as a next door neighbour. Tough and strong after being introduced to physical labour by his tough father, he started to rebel against authority at school, where he was failing because it didn't interest him. A desire to join the military didn't stop him getting involved in theft, housebreaking, arson and other criminal behaviour which eventually landed him in a remand home for a spell. He had no thought for the trauma he was causing to other people or his family, but kept pushing boundaries as far as he could until he was finally stopped.
He is brutally honest about who he was and what he did, and tells a shocking tale of how his life spiralled out of control after being attacked by an enraged adult chimp at the circus, an event that shaped his life, and how his father walking out finally removed the last obstacle of discipline that was holding his life together. Even joining the military was not the fix that he wanted. He was in awe of the Falklands veterans and wanted the excitement of going to war like them, finding that peace time in the Royal Marines was not what he was looking for. Even the chance to join the elite SBS did not satisfy him because of the amount of down time spent waiting to be called into action. After six years in SBS he decided to leave the military and seek his fortune elsewhere.
I can relate to Ollie never really finding that job that satisfied him. I was never exactly sure what I wanted to do so I drifted in and out of various jobs that never really excited me. Ollie finds the same after the military, being dragged into the typical security and protection jobs that provide the temporary highs of a military type campaign and danger, but also has the same lows. Add in the destructive personal relations he has and the ongoing battle with alcohol problems and he was in a pretty bad place for a while. The call about the TV show changes things forever and finally he finds focus and something he enjoys. The publicity for the show allows him to set up his dream job of running camps where people learn military skills to help them in their working and personal lives.
I love the TV show SAS Who Dares Wins, where ordinary people get the chance to test their skills on a shortened version of SAS selection to see if they have what it takes. I love watching them do the physical challenges and then struggle with the mental side of the challenges and the environment they are in. I particularly enjoy the jungle one! I also liked getting an insight to the instructors including Ollie, hearing a bit about their stories. That is why I have been so interested in reading their memoirs. Naturally they cannot talk as much about missions for reasons of national security but I do like reading about the training and what they endure on the various selections for different branches of the military.
Ollie's story was fascinating. I could relate to the job issues and had sympathy for his issues but I very much admired the positive attitude that he managed to keep through all of his problems and come out the other side, gaining a new partner who shared his vision for the Break Point company, which sounds really interesting. This book had a good mix of military action, personal problems, mental health issues and I very much enjoyed reading it.
Read June 2020
4 stars.
