Survivor

Life in the SAS

By: Mark Wales

Narrated by: Mark Wales

Length: 9 hrs

Publisher's summary

Forging resilience

Finding purpose

Mastering transformation

How do you rebuild your life when you've hit rock bottom?

Mark Wales thought his life would end in a cornfield in Afghanistan.

Mark and his SAS troops emerged from that scorched battlefield 12 hours later, his mentor gunned down, his dream career now a nightmare. Over four deployments of intense warfighting, Mark watched the line between right and wrong become blurred. When he left the SAS he was adrift, crippled by guilt.

On a mission to rebuild himself, Mark turned his life around. He fought his way into the gates of a US Ivy League business school and into the boardrooms of top-tier international corporations. He spent years navigating failure in a quest to find new meaning in life. With every setback Mark counterattacked, discovering the tactics and tools needed to become more resilient, and to find happiness, belonging and purpose.

Told with gripping suspense, humour and touching warmth, Survivor is Mark's extraordinary life in and out of the SAS, a story of resilience and a testament to the power of transformation.

©2021 Mark Wales (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"A powerful, honest story of courage, redemption and finding purpose." (Bear Grylls)

"Searing, humbling and uplifting.... Mark Wales is a true inspiration." (Major General John Cantwell AO, DSC)

"In Special Forces it is often said the thinking is at least as important as the fighting. Through these pages, Mark Wales is shown as a thinking soldier. And further, a person of magnificent generosity, taking us to rarely trespassed ground, the battlefield within." (Chris Masters, Gold Walkley award-winning journalist and author)

Great Read

Moving, motivational, inspiring. I needed this book at this time, in this place. thank you

Awesome book

Great audio version. Inspiring, brutal and honest account of the SASR. Loved it and listened to it in 2 days. Highly recommended

From the Heart

What an amazing story, I almost cringe at calling it a story… it’s masterful writing, true “show don’t tell.”
The interspersed dry Aussie humor along with gut wrenching vulnerability by the author almost demands that this go straight to the big screen, Mark’s already shown that he can act! This would and should translate to the silver screen.
The way that he exposes his weakness rather than exploiting his obvious strengths is pure balance.
I love this book, this should be in schools across the globe, it’s hard hitting truth telling that had me laughing,crying and hoping for the outcome he eventually found.
Outstanding memoir Mark, you and everyone associated with this should be justifiably proud.
Hafts admit I was shocked by the 14 year old escapade had me pissing my pants!
Well done…

Best book I’ve come across in the last few years!

A POWERFUL yarn. Honest, emotional, and captivating. The chapters on Mark’s time in Afghanistan are some of the most insightful on war generally, and the Afghanistan war specifically. Recommending to all my friends.

Powerful, Raw and Thrilling

An honest, vulnerable and powerful memoir. A great listen from start to finish. Well done Mark!

Great listen, hard to put down

I've never watched Survivor, or read many war books or heard of Mark Wales, so I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. But this is a really interesting, informative, and at times emotional story. Mark comes across as a tough, vulnerable, honest, funny, beautiful human being. It's a book you don't want to put down. The intonation on the narration is a little flat but it's still good to have it read in the author's voice and it feels authentic.
A few minor negative observations: there's a sort of recurring theme of wanting to do something, trying, failing, failing some more, finally getting better, then succeeding. After a while it feels a bit like rinse and repeat on the same story arc/trajectory. Also the language and editing is at times unnecessarily flowery and over the top. Eg I can't remember the context in the book but do men (soldiers anyway) really describe a woman as 'eschewing makeup'? And the chapters on the fashion business feel a little jarring and uncomfortably like a marketing strategy inserted into the book.
Those criticisms aside, it's a great read and what stands out is how lucky we are to have such courageous, committed, decent people in our armed forces. All Australians should be very proud of soldiers like Mark and forever grateful for their sense of duty. Thanks for your service mate.