HE shouldn’t still be alive, but somehow David Wiseman of The Yorkshire Regiment survived a horrific injury in Helmand when a Taliban bullet lodged deep in his chest, inches from his heart.

Only weeks before David had narrowly avoided being shot by a rogue element of the Afghan police.

Understandably David was hugely traumatised by his tour of duty and sought solace and a renewed sense of purpose on the slopes of the Himalayas.

Now he has written about his time in Afghanistan, revealing the horrors and absurdities of the conflict and how frustration and chance eventually led him to find renewed purpose on the slopes of Mount Everest.

It’s an extraordinary account by an extraordinary man. Gritty reading, for sure, but we owe it to people like David Wiseman to learn more about what they went through.