1st Publication date April 1982 United Kingdom Transworld/ Corgi
Hardback Publication date 1992 Severn House Publishers ISBN 0-7278-4413-X 256pp 222 x 141mm
Paperback Publication date 1994 Mandarin ISBN 0-7493-1286-6 320pp 178 x 111mm
Hardback Publication date 1999 Lime Tree ISBN 0-4134-5531-9
From book cover
(Filmed as `Who Dares Wins')
Peter Skellen is thrown out of the SAS
for serious misconduct. He resigns his commission and becomes a gamekeeper -turned-poacher.
His skills and inside knowledge of counter terrorism, available to the highest
bidder, make him a walking timebomb..
Or
A James Follett thriller set in 1980s London, with a background of peace marches,
street assassinations and blood-bath embassy sieges. An SAS captain is dismissed
for a brutality that not even that elite regiment can stomach, and is recruited
by a radical organisation backed by Libyan funds
This is a book that I have just managed to read and I think the book is better than the film, you get far more idea of what is driving the main characters in the story than you do with the film. The film is good in that it shows you what the characters do but not what they think. The Novel still has the twists that James Follett can do so well. To find out later that this story was written so quickly, shows that James Follett can and does seem to work very well under pressure.
Author James Follett comments
" The synopsis for The Tiptoe Boys was written by the late George Markstein, my guru to whom I owe much. Ill health and other commitments prevented George from writing the book so he assigned the storyline to me. It was written in 30 days -- the chapters being sent to the film producer, Euan Lloyd, as they were written. It was a harrowing but valuable experience. " James Follett
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