This book is engrossing reading not only because of the subject matter (the rise of Sinn Fein during the Anglo-Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War) but because it is written by one who was on the scene, lived through the events and knew the men about whom he wrote. The portraits that emerge of Irish revolutionary leaders, in particular Michael Collins, Eamon de Valera and Arthur Griffiths, are fascinating and revealing. O'Hegarty is clearly a Michael Collins man and he provides several particularly interesting insights into the legendary rebel leader, including a description of how his (O'Hegarty"s) young child reacted to Collins. Not a sweeping review of the era but an unusually intimate and perceptive slant on it.