In his book Honourable Warriors, he concludes: "Any reading of the culture, the history or politics should have prevented us from taking on Helmand".
Honourable mentions for books that made long commutes pass in a flash include Katherine Woodfine's gloriously retro romp The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow, the fabulous Tonke Dragt's Secrets of the Wild Wood, Jon Walter's stunning, My Name's Not Friday, Helen Maslin's spooky Darkmere and Katie Everson's druggy Drop.
Honourable Mentions: BBQ chicken, Book-It, breadsticks.
She turned down what she calls "the £1m book deal", an honourable move for which, by virtue of raising it, she would clearly like to be thanked.
To look back over the catalogue of its stories, from the Profumo scandal, to Deepcut, from T Dan Smith to Trafigura, is to turn back the pages of a book of wholly honourable revelation.
Among them is an intricate survey of the Ulster estates commissioned by Charles I – the so-called Great Parchment Book of The Honourable The Irish Society, dating from 1639.
In 2006, Warriors also received an honourable mention for the best book series for Publisher Weekly's "On the Cuff" awards.
If he does, he will indeed deserve an honourable mention in the history books.In March Malaysian politics entered a new era.
As Clint Eastwood has shown, it's possible to make a very fine film out of a risible novel (The Bridges of Madison County) and an honourable failure out of a bestselling book (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil).
His book's failures are profoundly honourable, and unpicking them has not been for me a happy task.
