The Sterling Years is the life story of the author, James Edmiston who gives his account in a light hearted manner. The significance of his life is his companies involvement with the manufacture, development and usage of the most famous sub-machine gun that was designed at the end of WWII. The Sterling sub-machine gun was later modified in 1953 to be the formally adopted by the British Army, giving the Sterling Armament Company successes, maybe even the potential of being a world leader. Edmiston gives his first account of shooting the L2A3, the Sterling sub-machine gun and refers to it as a gun of 'outstanding mechanical beauty', he later states, 'a year later I bought the company', it was his relationship with the company that made it successful . He built his company up on loyalty as opposed to profit, and he claims, 'it couldn't have run any other way'. Edmiston sold his company in 1983 for reasons unknown, in his epilogue, he give an account as to why in sad sense of national betrayal, it was taken over by Royal Ordnance, a subsidiary of British Aerospace Plc at the time when another of Sterling's 5.56 mm rifles had reached prototype. Although a clear reason is not given, Edmiston concludes that the take over was to shut the company down. This is an excellent book that will appeal to anyone who is interested in military history, young and old. Moreover, it is also a personal account of hard work and determination.Edmiston having being educated at Rugby and Brasenose College Oxford, claims to be the result of the working class. His story does verify this with him having no particular political out look, however, one could say that he is quite marxist in tone. His acknowledgment to his workforce of the Sterling Armament Company LTD is verification of to this notion.

Stephen Wood (Customer Review)