Dirty Combat : Secret Wars and Serious Misadventures (Revised Edition)

Born into a poor family in Blitz-torn London, David Tomkins was raised by a mother who did everything she could for him despite little help from his drunken father. As a teenager, a court found him "beyond parental control" after he stabbed the tires of his probation officer's car, a defining moment that set him on an unconventional path. He soon joined the Merchant Navy, and from there his journey led him into one of the most dangerous professions on earth: soldier of fortune.

Dirty Combat is the true story of a mercenary who fought in Angola's brutal civil war, surviving minefields, ambushes, and the chaos of the FNLA's collapsing campaign, only to walk straight into the next danger. From African warzones to the inner workings of Colombia's Cali cartel, from a US federal prison cell to private security contracts in Iraq, Tomkins lived a life most people only see in movies.

This is a raw, unflinching military memoir written without apology. It does not glamorize war or crime. It tells the truth about what it costs to live outside the law and outside safety, and what it takes to survive when the odds are never in your favor.

Fans of true crime memoirs, war memoirs, and real life adventure stories will find Dirty Combat impossible to put down. It is a story of violence, loyalty, betrayal, and one man's refusal to be broken by any of it.