David McVea was, for many years, head of the politics department at a leading Belfast grammar school. He now works for Northern Ireland's examinations board. With David McKittrick he helped to produce the book Lost Lives, which tells the stories of all those who died as a result of the Troubles.

One of the great merits of David McKittrick and David McVea's book lies in the authors' ability to pinpoint the causes of trouble while avoiding oversimplification.... A valuable resume of causes and effects.

If you want a frank, accurate and authoritative account you cannot do much better.... There could be no better guide through the intricacies of the Peace Process. This book...is likely to be the definitive account.... An important book.... It should be on every bookshelf.

Comprehensive, considered and compassionate.

A masterly account.

Extraordinarily well-balanced, sane, comprehensive, and rich in sober understatement.

This book tells a sorry tale, and it tells it with a powerful clarity.... It took steady nerves to undertake such a book.