An Cosantóir

20 INTERVIEW WITH RAY GOGGINS in the Army, what is means and the commitment people put into it and what it does for their lives. So yeah, it's good to see that. Q. What was your motivation for writing your book Ranger 22? Again, I got asked to do that. I got a phone call from the executive producer of the show. A guy called Jamie Dalton, a brilliant guy. This guy is in the production world and filming. He does "DIY SOS". He did "McGregor Notorious". The guy is amazing. He gave me a ring and he said the book company want to know would you be interested in doing your memoir? After 10 minutes of laughing, I met him and I met the company then, and their female associate publisher. We had a few ideas and we said, "okay what is this going to be about"? So yeah, I was going okay… I am an avid reader anyway and I said "give me a little time to chew on it" so I wrote a few things down and I kind of put a structure on it. I was going to have something to offer here. What I didn't want to do was write a war book. Look, I am not saying there are a dime a dozen but like, you get U.S guys, Brits, who are constantly in war zones, getting shot at and killed, left right and centre, who write books about that. I didn't want it to be about that. I wanted it to be more about the stuff you learn about in your ca- reer. Particularly, in the military. You know, all the team's stuff, the resilience, the mindset, the posi- tive attitude, all those things we take as normal in the Army. People don't outside... they talk about it. They use all the buzzwords, but they don't get it. We live it. We have to live it. When you are over- seas with a group, that's all you have. You don't have family; you don't have anybody else. I found the transition to the book quite easy. I wrote it in 8 weeks. The book was put up for an award right away, one of the book awards, and I was talking to a woman author, and she asked me what my method was? I told her a just sat down at the com- puter and started typing. I would remember stuff and start typing… I told her it took me 8 weeks… she said "her hair nearly blew off". She said "I was 3 years writing my book", so I said there you go. See for me, it was stuff I "saw"," felt" and "did". Whereas, they are writing fiction, they are writing stuff they imagine. They are smart people. I was just writing what I saw, felt and did and what oth- Hell Week DS, Alan O Brien, Ger Reidy, Robert Stafford and Ray Goggins

• Cover