Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain's Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War

by Ben Macintyre

Byron’s Don Juan: “He was the mildest-mannered man / That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.” The continuation of that quotation also fitted Stirling’s character: “With such true breeding of a gentleman, / You never could divine his real thought.”