In case anyone didn't know, Bandit Country is south Armagh, a sobriquet bestowed on the area and its inhabitants by the jelly-spined Merlyn Rees way back in 1974. South Armagh was for long the engine room of the IRA campaign in the North. It was here that its armaments were perfected; it was here that the massive Canary Wharf bomb was prepared; and it was from here that the IRA planned and executed its biggest single strike against the British security forces, when 18 members of the Parachute Regiment were blown up at Narrow Water in August 1979. Toby Harnden has done a masterful job of explaining why south Armagh is special. He traces the history of the area back as far as Plantation times. He has managed to talk to RUC and British Army personnel as well as republican activists. He steers a balanced course and writes objectively. The book is a triumph and should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in Northern Ireland.