RECOGNISE the guy in the photo?

It's a rather young looking Martin Bell, former BBC war reporter and Independent MP.

He's back in Taunton on Friday, October 2, for a literary lunch, when he'll talk about his time as a soldier in the British Army in Cyprus in the late 1950s, during the EOKA rebellion.

Bell recently discovered letters he had written home during the conflict and now he's used them to write The End of Empire, a powerful personal account of the violent process of decolonization, of the character of the British army at the time and the impact of National Service on young men who were not much more than 'kids in uniform'.

Bell also gives a graphic insight into the futility of the use of force in wars among the people and reveals, for the first time, the true story of the insurgency and the campaign to defeat it, for recently declassified documents show that the army commanders adopted misguided tactics that served only to strengthen support for their enemy.

The literary lunch is at The Castle Hotel at midday - tickets for the talk only are available at £15, or the talk, a two course lunch and a glass of wine for £39 from the Castle Hotel website.

Tickets are limited.