Andy McNab's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Andy McNab recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Andy McNab's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

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My Friend the Mercenary

James Brabazon

4.3

Recommended by Andy McNab.

Andy McNab

This is James’s personal story of going to West Africa as a journalist covering the war in Liberia. He hired a protector and fixer to look after him and the fixer turned out to have been involved with Simon Mann and Equatorial Guinea so James just became immersed in the story behind the coup. It’s a fantastic view of the whole thing – and of the midnight phone-calls with people telling him what they knew. [source]

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Crusades

Terry Jones, Marcello Walton, Alan Ereira, David Wallace

4.0

Crusades presents an in-depth and strikingly illustrated look at the overly zealous European quest to reconquer the Holy Land and the conflict that developed between Christians and Muslims that continues to this day.

Recommended by Andy McNab.

Andy McNab

I watched that Terry Jones documentary about the crusades ages ago and it was quite funny. You’ve got old Pope Urban in the 11th century who got up and said: ‘We’ve got to go do it.’ And the spread of Christianity – it was all about business, power. And all of a sudden the crusaders were getting absolution. There was a crusade in the south of France and the Pope said: ‘Just kill them all. God will sort it out in Heaven.’ And you’ve got the Knights Templar who invented the first cheques and who were there when the Magna Carta was signed saying: ‘We are the king-makers.’ They thought they were stopping the spread of the evil Islam… [source]

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A Million Bullets: The real story of the British Army in Afghanistan

James Fergusson

4.2

In April 2006 a small British peace-keeping force was sent to Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Within weeks they were cut off and besieged by some of the world's toughest fighters: the infamous Taliban, who were determined to send the foreigners home again. Defence Secretary John Reid had hoped that Operation Herrick 4 could be accomplished without a shot being fired; instead, the Army wa

Recommended by Andy McNab.

Andy McNab

Fergusson was a journalist in Afghanistan with Herrick 4 – the campaign has gone on so long we’re now on about Herrick 14. Fergusson had done all the big interviews with the Defence Secretary and got all that standard block information on the war, but then he started to talk to the soldiers, asking them, ‘What do you think? Why do you think you’re here?’ John Reid was saying the operation in Afghanistan could be achieved without a single shot being fired and yet the soldiers were in the middle of this big fight. How did that happen? [source]

Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

Siegfried Sassoon

4.5

An irreverent look at British military leaders during WW1, written by the Hawthornden-Prize winning author.

Recommended by Andy McNab.

Andy McNab

This is a stunning novel. I love the English gentleman element of it. You’ve got this well-educated man who really doesn’t mind killing Germans but what he doesn’t understand is the reason why he’s killing them. As the war continued he began to realise that it was for political reasons – the military industrial complex. There was too much power play – the Allies couldn’t stop because they need the Germans completely on their knees so everyone got the divvy-up of land and power. [source]