The French Foreign Legion: a true adventure of determination and grit in the hostile North African desert.

In 1960, at only nineteen years old, Simon Murray traveled alone to Paris, Marseilles, and on to Algeria to fulfill the toughest contract of his life: a five-year stint in the mysterious, romantic, and deadly French Foreign Legion. Along the way, he kept a diary.

Legionnaire is Murray's compelling, firsthand account of his experience with this legendary band of soldiers. Subjected to brutal sergeants, merciless training methods and barbaric punishments - all under the scorching desert sun - Murray and his fellow men were pushed beyond breaking point.

Filled with drama, excitement and vivid characters, Murray's memoir is 'one of the greatest adventure stories in years' (Chris Patten) and 'a good guts-and-glory thriller' (Dr. Henry Kissinger). Sixty years on, it remains a remarkable tale of true adventure and one man's determination never to surrender.

Simon Murray CBE was born in Leicester in 1940 and joined the French Foreign Legion at age nineteen, serving in the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment for five years. He fought in the Algerian War against the Front de Liberation National and left the Legion in 1965. He subsequently moved to Hong Kong where he pursued a career as a businessman. In 2004, Murray joined Pen Hadow to trek to the South Pole and became the oldest man to reach the South Pole unsupported. He is married and has three children and six grandchildren. Legionnaire is his first book.