BILLY BULLSHIT TALKS BUSINESS: In a nutshell? Billy talks total bullsh*t at work and this book makes sense of it. Kapish?

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I joined the Parachute Regiment with him and then the SAS after him. We were so close. In all the time I knew him we’d never been on the phone more than 10 seconds, just long enough to arrange to go down the pub. Then one night he called me up and we were on the phone for 15 minutes and he kept saying: ‘It’s great being a granddad, isn’t it?’ And I thought: ‘This isn’t him’. I was waiting for the punchline. I ignored it, but I knew something wasn’t right. Now I know I should have gone and seen him.” Mental health wasn’t something Billingham ever talked about while he was serving in the SAS for 17 years, even when they returned from an operation one soldier down, an empty bunk representing a friend lost. “I honestly never believed in it. I actually thought it was a weakness. I know it’s not now,” he says emphatically. “I now know it’s a big problem.”

to live a life that is dishonest because you are pretending to be something that you are not, either to yourself or to other people.

More than just a forum...

Walker, who admitted that he was gay last year, spoke of the relief he felt at no longer having to live a lie." My friends text me quite a few times about all meeting up again. We can't on the dates suggested but my DH and me really don't want to go. DH says that one of us should really speak to her and tell we find him too much. He has been shot at, stabbed and blown up. He’s also been held hostage, as well as successfully negotiating hostage situations. He has lost close friends and comrades while on covert operations all over the world, but some of the most dangerous days of Mark “Billy” Billingham’s life came after he left the SAS. I don’t talk about SF [Special Forces] operations stuff, and rightly so, but it is my life. I spent most of my early military career trying to get into the SF and then the rest of the career not talking about it. Then when you step out it’s ingrained into you not to talk about it.” Of course this isn’t a definitive list to spotting a bullshitter – let’s face it, if it was that easy we wouldn’t be falling prey to those 10-200 lies a day would we, but it’s a good starting point if you’re not convinced that someone isn’t always telling you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And, if it’s YOU who likes to play fast and loose with the truth, at least you’ve got a bit of an idea of what it is that’s going to get you caught out!

We have had people in our lives like this before but not this bad. He had only just met me and said "I'm not being funny but that dress makes you look really fat" I might be carrying a few extra pounds but over the years I've lost 5 stone! And am now a comfortable 10/12. When you leave the military, he says, no one sits you down and says: “This is what will happen; this is what you need to do.”

I’m pretty sure that at some point in our lives we’ve all told our boss that we were late because of traffic or leaves on the line rather than admit the truth; that we slept in…and how many times have you told a friend or colleague that you like their outfit or haircut when in reality you weren’t that keen?….or acted elated over a gift you’ve received that deep down you know will make it to the charity shop before the week is out? Exactly. He’s sitting on a beaten-up old Chesterfield sofa at HR4K, a gym-cum-coffee-hangout on the outskirts of Hereford, where the SAS is based. His British bulldog, Alfie, is snoozing beside him. They both flew over the day before from Florida, where he lives with his second wife, American fashion designer Julie Colombino. HR4K was founded by Ben Garwood, a former SAS operator, and offers the sort of comradeship that Billingham is talking about today. Went to an open air rave in Barcelona(despite never going out side of his home town) and got off with hundreds of lasses over 3 nights

In fact, even if you’re convinced you can spot a liar a mile off, research tells us that most people are only as good as chance when it comes to identifying when someone is trying to pull the wool over their eyes. that he was a former Marine who had six Purple Hearts and two Silver Stars (which put him up there in Audie Murphy territory). This was a dude who didn't have a mark on his body, but told her that he was a 'fast healer.' Of course he was part of a super special secret branch of the Marines. They always are.Billingham’s own understanding of mental illness has undoubtedly changed. However, he admits to finding it difficult how easily terms like PTSD are used in the wider public: “It makes it harder for people who are really in need of help to ask for it,” he says. “We’ve labelled everything. The truth is we’re all going to be sad and depressed at times. Life has its peaks and troughs. When things aren’t going in your favour you don’t need to be seen to be suffering. But if you need help, reach out for it.” It felt like everything was imploding on me. I was stranded,” recalls the 57-year-old today. “It was a whole new world for me. I was scared to talk to people. I couldn’t tell them what I’d been doing for years. The Special Forces world is all cloak and dagger, no one knows who you are or what you are.”

Twas a glorious moment. And we never believed her about the Julia Roberts connection after that either. One day he came in the pub just as one our mates was taking a tablet (prescribed laxative from doctor for a real life problem....long story ). Eventually he came out as being gay and I didn't believe that either, and my response was so sceptical that he never really forgave me and stopped talking to me not long after. "I'm trying to come out here!" To this day I don't know if I believe that he genuinely was homosexual or not. Perhaps that might explain some of his bullshitting weirdness, but then again, when you're bombarded with so much attention seeking, it's hard to fathom what's true and what isn't. I was far from being the only person who greeted his announcement with extreme scepticism.His brags were generally pretty pedestrian - about having had two women at once while on holiday in Italy, having been involved in a criminal gang, coming from a rough family with criminal connections in a rough part of town - the classic things people with very little imagination tend to spew out. On top of that, he claimed that he had numerous sexual perversions which he practiced with various people, often of the bondage variety. The public platform he enjoys now has come at a cost, permanently severing all ties with his beloved SAS regiment. “I’ve paid a sacrifice for being in the public eye, because now I’m not allowed on the camp,” he explains, adding: “I don’t talk about anything that’s not in the public domain and I’m very proud of my career. I’ll always be an advocate for that life.”