It's come to the end of the first week of the Osprey Advent Calendar. So far, we've revealed some new artwork, as well as a slightly more tenuous Christmas themed Sunday Photo. We also asked some talented members of staff to pick their favourite Osprey book.

To kick off the first day of advent, we asked Mike to choose his favourite Osprey book. Charged with this honoured task, Mike went a bit mad and ended up picking three books: SAS Heroes: Remarkable Soldiers, Extraordinary Men, Soldier 'I' - The story of an SAS Hero,  and Tonight We Die As Men. Mike has had the great luck to meet some of the great men involved in these books, and has picked up a few anecdotes on the way.

Behind the 3rd door of advent lurked WPN 11: The Berretta M9 Pistol. Editor Phil explained why Hollywood star quality, fascinating detail and Mel Gibson made WPN 11 his favourite Osprey book.

Abseiling down the calendar and crashing through the 4th door of advent in a storm of flash-bangs and CS gas was Ed's choice, RAID 4: ‘Who Dares Wins’. Largely unknown to the public before, the SAS dramatically entered the world stage in this near-textbook mission, and as a small boy watching on television Ed found the MP-5 toting, black-clad figures in gas masks gripping.


In the last of this week's selections, editor Charly picked Iraq Full Circle. Written by a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, this book allowed Charly to look past the TV coverage of the war we all know, to try and understand what life was like on the ground.

And now, we're giving you the chance to win all six of these books. Given the Special Forces/modern warfare theme that seems to have emerged, we're asking you a simple SAS based question:

Who, in 1941, formed the SAS?

Send your answers to [email protected] along with your name. On Monday one lucky winner will be chosen to win all these books, in their choice of printed or PDF ebook form.

Good Luck! Don't forget, more competitions, artwork reveals and staff blogs are on their way as we continue the Osprey Advent Calendar.