Mad Mitch's Tribal Law is an account not just of the record of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Aden in 1967 - and of the commanding officer of the 1st battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Colin Mitchell - as the title implies but, rather, the wider issues associated with the final counter-insurgency efforts of the British Empire. Some would, of course, suggest that this is still ongoing in Northern Ireland, and the two conflicts are linked in many ways. Aaron Edwards is no stranger to either: his account picks up in the telling of Aden where Jonathan Walker's seminal work Aden Insurgency: The Savage War in South Arabia, 1962-67 (2005) had already left off. Chapters break new ground in examining Arab politics in what was to become South Yemen; the Radfan operations of 1964; the politics of the British Labour government at the time; the better-known aspects of the mutiny in Aden; and the highly; successful Operation Stirling Castle, the occupation of Crater by the Argylls in July 1967. Only one chapter examines the controversial imposition of 'Argyll Law' in Crater -which remains contentious to this day, as this reviewer has previously remarked upon in this journal.
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