Set in the 1970s, ‘’A Breed of Heroes’’ follows the deployment of young British Army officer Charles Thoroughgood on a four-month emergency tour of Northern Ireland.

The first month of the tour is spent in the countryside of Armagh, where Charles’ battalion make their presence felt by ending all British Army contact with the locals and pursuing a deliberately more aggressive stance than the previous garrison unit.

Seeing his first explosion, as well as finding the scattered body parts of a man who should have been him and his soldiers, brings the realities of his situation home to him and increases his thoughts that he should never have joined the army: something which he must tackle throughout the book.

In moving to Belfast for the remaining three months of the tour, things take a turn for the worse – something Charles thought couldn't happen after the endless boredom and sporadic fear of Armagh.

The officers and men of his battalion learn to deal with the pressures and squalor of urban guerrilla warfare by drinking, making mischief and engaging in sexual orgies.

This task is complicated somewhat by his Commanding Officer's hatred of the press and idiosyncratic way of doing things, but Charles finds living in the police station which houses HQ much more bearable than the grim surrounds of the factory.

More escapades follow, with Charles being involved in heart racing riots and close scrapes with members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, as well as comic activities with his brother officers.

His job as PRO leads him into contact with The Times' cowardly and drunkard Northern Ireland correspondent Beazley, who pays Charles and his Lance Corporal photographer to write and send his dispatches, thus allowing himself to avoid danger and sit in his hotel bar.