Contents, 

Introduction and acknowledgements, 

Chapter 1, The road to Challenger 1

Chapter 2, Turning the Shir 2 into Challenger, warts and all

Chapter 3, Trials and tribulations

Chapter 4, Living with Challenger

Chapter 5, Specialised variants and 'What ifs?'

Chapter 6, Challenger in action

Chapter 7, Retirement of Challenger 1 and disposal

Chapter 8, Challenger 1 photo walkround

Annex A camouflage and markings, notes for modellers

Annex B selected comparisons, Challenger 1 v. Leopard 2A4, T-80 B/BV, and M1A1

I straight up enjoyed reading this book, well written and full of detail, but written in a conversation style, the language and specifics is not dry and laborious to read. The author displays an excellent knowledge of the subject, and is unapologetically pro British armour.  

The history of Challenger, being a tank designed for another user, not the British Army, is told in a straight forward manner, with the explanation of Britain's orphan tank being that the tank was designed and sold to Iran, who brought and paid for an entire fleet upfront, only to have the Shar deposed and the deal falling through, whereby the British Government took it over, as at the same time, the development of the MBT 80, being developed in-house, was falling further behind schedule and increasingly unlikely to come to fruition. Hence, the orphan tank. 

There are some great soldiers' stories throughout and good use of "the irreverent style typical of Army humor" to illustrate a point; I did however grow tired of the author repeatedly addressing the reader with either sarcasm or opinion. But that is just my opinion. 

As per the contents above, there is a great history about some very specific aspects of the Challenger, its development, deployment, and eventual disposal.  I particularly enjoyed reading about the world's longest confirmed tank on tank kill at 4700m. The is approximately 135m in 1/35! Something that did escape me is that the tank that did record the kill is 'white four zero' in some images, and 'black four zero' in others, but there is no explanation for the difference. I may try contacting the author to clarify, it could be a bit too detailed for the book (does anyone here know?). 

The comparisons at the back of the book is a good read, and the author is fair in his assessments about the pros and cons of the vehicles, being able to prove how one is better than the other, as the case may be. 

The inclusion of colour plates at the rear is a good reference for modellers, along with the scale plans in five view. The entire book is incredibly well illustrated, too, with many clear shots of Challenger 1 in various states of deployment or development, the walkround section is particularly good for detail close up images. There are images of the men interacting with their machines in a range of different predicaments, all rich material for modelling inspiration. 

Overall a very useful title for modelling, or the history of post-war British tank development. 

Easily recommended. 

Pages: 180, illustrations: Scale plans, color profiles, B&W photos.