A first-time author has vowed to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth in his upcoming memoir.

Matthew Innes, who grew up on Tranent’s Coalgate Road in the 1950s and 1960s with his eight siblings, began writing his memoir at the beginning of Covid.

But the story of his childhood and career in the oil industry has turned into a focus on his time in the Parachute Regiment, including details of his tours of Northern Ireland and ensuing inquests.

Mr Innes, 74, told the Courier: “The book talks about daily life with my family and the people in Tranent – it was a poor time, there was still rationing and there was no rich or middle class, people were just poor.”

Mr Innes wrote the first draft of his memoir, then called A New Beginning, “to give to my family as a legacy”, he said – but, after their feedback, he decided to rewrite and add to his story, focusing on his time with the Parachute Regiment and changing the book’s title to A Paratrooper’s Journey.

He said: “When I was 18, I left home and joined the Parachute Regiment – you had to be streetwise and have a tough side to survive training.

“I joined in 1968 and the troubles in Northern Ireland started in 1969. I spent several tours going to Northern Ireland and was involved in the violence there. From August 9 to August 11, 1971, was the worst three days outside Bloody Sunday.”

Mr Innes shares details from this time in his reworked memoir and vowed: “I’m going to tell the truth, I’m not going to lie.”

As well as sharing his experience of the inquests into the Ballymurphy massacre, for which he took to the stand in court, Mr Innes’s book explores his career with US energy company Halliburton in the Middle East and Russia.

He said: “I was going to join the SAS – it was made up of people coming out of the Parachute Regiment – but I thought it was enough for me, I was finished with the army.

“I went back to Tranent and it hadn’t changed in nine years. People were going to pubs and clubs, there were drunk men all over the place.

“There was nothing in Tranent.”

After seeing an advert for a role with Halliburton in a newspaper, a next-day interview immediately got him the job – and a 30-year career flying all over the world, managing teams in the fracking industry.

Now retired and living in Edinburgh’s Bruntsfield, Mr Innes found himself writing his life story after his wife, Barbara, suggested he had a book in him, and the Covid lockdown meant he was “watching the traffic all day”.

He said: “I was sitting at my desk 12 hours a day, from nine at night till nine in the morning – writing a book really takes you into another world.”

A Paratrooper’s Journey will be available from mid-March, from Whispers bar on Tranent High Street, via Amazon and also from book shops.