Eight Lives Down: The Most Dangerous Job in the World in the Most Dangerous Place in the World

Visceral and compelling, Eight Lives Down is the most exciting and nerve-jangling work of military non-fiction since Bravo Two Zero.

If fate is against me and I€m killed, so be it, but make it quick and painless. If I€m wounded, don€t let me be crippled. But above all, don€t let me fuck up the task.

So goes the bomb technician€s prayer before every bomb he defuses. For Chris Hunter, it is a prayer he says many times during his four-month tour of Iraq. His is the most dangerous job in the world €" to make safe the British sector in Iraq against some of the most hardened and technically advanced terrorists in the world. It is a 24/7 job €" in the first two months alone, his team defuses over 45 bombs. And the people they€re up against don€t play by the Geneva Convention. For them, there are no rules, only results €" death by any means necessary.

The job of a Bomb Disposal officer is a lonely one. You are alone with the sound of your own breathing and the drumming of your heart in a protective suit in forty-plus degrees of heat. The drawbridge has been pulled up behind you as you advance on your goal. It€s just you and the bomb.

But for Chris Hunter, just when life couldn€t get any more dangerous, the stakes are raised again.