The story of a forgotten ship sunk in the Falklands war

What started as a idea for a lengthy article on the subject ended up capturing Mark's imagination so much that he put it together in a 402 page book.

The fruit of his labours, Through Fire and Water, can be enjoyed from January 29 when it hits the shelves of Hammicks, Waterstones and other bookshops.

The book tells the story of HMS Ardent which was sunk on the first day of the British landings to take the Falklands back from the Argentineans on May 21, 1982. Of the 199 men on board, 22 were killed and another 30 were injured.

Mark, who lives in Alcester and is now deputy editor on the Worcester Evening News, was a reporter on the Redditch Indicator at the time where he was in contact with a couple of families who had members on HMS Ardent.

He said: "I knew quite a bit about the story and over the next 12 years I gradually became aware that you couldn't read much about HMS Ardent and what you could read was very inconsistent.

"If you mention the Falklands war, everyone has heard of ships like the Belgrano and HMS Sheffield, but not many will know about HMS Ardent. Yet more than one in four of her men were killed or wounded - nothing else which was hit suffered that proportion of losses to its entire number."

He decided something ought to be written to document the Ardent's fate and pay tribute to her crew so, with some trepidation, he contacted one of the men he dealt with back in 1982.

"At the time I had no idea it would make a book, but when I said I thought something ought to be recorded about it, the phone went very quiet. I apologised to him thinking I had upset him, but the reason he had gone quiet was that he had been talking to one of his old shipmates just recently and both had said someone ought to write the story."

So began Mark's eye-opening research which made him realise there was even more to the story than he first imagined.

Some of the crew are still today suffering psychiatric problems because of what occurred on the ship. Mark consulted psychiatrists for advice before interviewing these people and spent many weekends travelling around the country for face-to-face interviews.

"I wondered what their reactions would be as it was going to bring back a lot of memories which they had maybe tried to forget," he said.

"Most of them wanted the story to be told but in order for that to happen, many had to dig very deep and talk about events which they wouldn't want to talk about for the rest of their lives.

"It was often emotional and difficult to hear about, but however difficult it was for me, it was a hundred times worse for them.

"I have always felt it was also very important to explain to readers what it was like for the families sat at home waiting for the phone to go to say whether their son, husband, brother etc had survived."

Now his book is about to go on general release, Mark says he still cannot quite believe it and still hasn't been able to read the entire book himself after spending so long pouring over draft copies.

"What has surprised me and satisfied me enormously is that I totally underestimated just how much it would mean to the guys to have the book in their hands and that, if people choose, they can find out what happened on HMS Ardent. They are no longer the forgotten few."

Through Fire and Water is published by Mainstream.