The year is 1969. The start of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. For Jim McDowell, a rookie reporter, it was the beginning of a life at the heart of one of world's most notorious and bitter conflicts.

His gripping memoir reveals what it was like to live under constant fear of attack and delves into Northern Ireland's criminal underworld, including Jim's tense encounters with infamous terrorist drug dealers and killer gang godfathers like Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair and Billy 'King Rat' Wright.

McDowell's career spanned 45 years as he rose to become northern editor of Ireland's Sunday World, facing down threats, beatings and the murder of one of his reporters, Martin O'Hagan, to expose the stories that needed to be told. Always fighting the good fight.

'Those stories – even the ones that put my life in danger – had to be told. That was my job. That was what I did. It is what I do. And this, now, is my story.'

45 years. 21 death threats. Over 2,000 front pages. This is Jim's story.