Ant Middleton Books in Order

If you want his military memoir and mindset journey: First Man In → The Fear Bubble → Zero Negativity
If you’re curious about his self-help playbook: Zero Negativity → Mental Fitness → The Wall
If you want high-octane fiction: Cold Justice → Red Mist
If you’re choosing books for confident, resilient kids (~9–12): Mission Total Resilience → Mission: Total Confidence

Ant Middleton is a former Special Forces soldier turned television presenter and author, best known for fronting SAS: Who Dares Wins and for his straight-talking books on mindset, fear and resilience. He blends lived experience from the military, adventure television and family life into stories that feel practical rather than abstract.

He was born Anthony Middleton in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in September 1980, and spent much of his childhood in Normandy after his family moved to France. Growing up between countries meant learning a new language and culture, but it also left him restless. By his mid-teens he was already looking for a way back to the UK and a more focused life.

That route back was the armed forces. As a teenager he joined the British Army, serving with the Royal Engineers and then 9 Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers. Later he passed the demanding Royal Marines Commando course and, after that, Special Forces selection to join the Special Boat Service as a sniper and point man. Over more than a decade he deployed to Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Afghanistan, often at the sharpest end of operations.

Those years gave him a reputation for toughness, but they also left scars. He has spoken openly about moments he is not proud of, including an alcohol-fuelled incident that led to a prison sentence after he left the military. Instead of hiding that chapter, he folds it into his story as a hard lesson in ownership, consequence and starting again.

After leaving the forces he worked in private security around the world before television came calling. In 2015 he became the chief instructor on SAS: Who Dares Wins, putting civilians and celebrities through a version of Special Forces selection in brutal environments. Spin-off shows like Mutiny, Escape, Extreme Everest with Ant Middleton and SAS Australia followed, taking him from stormy Atlantic crossings to high-altitude climbs and desert training camps.

Writing grew alongside the TV work. His first major book, First Man In, mixes autobiography with lessons on leadership, showing how discipline, detail and calm under pressure translate from the battlefield to everyday life. In The Fear Bubble he tells the story of climbing Everest and explains how he uses fear as fuel rather than something to run from. Zero Negativity closes out what many readers see as a mindset trilogy, focusing on taking responsibility, cutting blame and building a more positive inner voice.

He has since expanded that playbook. Mental Fitness breaks his approach down into everyday habits that keep body and mind working together rather than at odds. The Wall looks at the invisible barriers that hold people back, from self-doubt to the wrong crowd, and offers practical ways to break through. For younger readers he has written Mission Total Resilience and Mission: Total Confidence, activity-led guides that turn his ideas about courage and self-belief into challenges children can actually try.

Alongside his non-fiction he writes the Mallory thrillers, beginning with Cold Justice and Red Mist. Their ex–Special Forces protagonist carries the weight of a disastrous mission and channels Middleton’s knowledge of tactics, camaraderie and guilt into fast-paced fiction that still feels grounded in reality.

Off screen and off the page he is a husband and father of five. He has spoken about the strain his old life placed on family time, and about trying to be more present as his career has shifted into writing, speaking and television. In recent years he has based his family in Dubai while travelling for filming, live tours and youth camps, all built around the same core idea: that ordinary people can push further than they think when they understand their own mindset.