Watching the Door is the memoir of an ordinary young man who drifted into a war zone, made it his home &, somehow, emerged unscathed. After Kevin Myers graduated from university in 1969, a chance job application landed him a position as a journalist in Belfast, reporting on the Troubles. There, he was absorbed quickly into the local community. Soon he became privy to the secrets of Protestant & Catholic paramilitaries alike. In his darkly funny account of life on the streets, Myers evokes with searing clarity a society on the brink of civil war. His memoir is a remarkable portrait of those divisions, from the dedicated violence of loyalist gangs & provos to the behaviour of paratroopers, squaddies, Northern Ireland's police force & the wider population. Raw, candid & courageous, Watching the Door recalls the bloodiest time in Northern Ireland's recent past. It is a coming-of-age story like no other.