Under The Wire - Hardcover

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Born in Texas in 1917, WILLIAM ASH joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1939. Posted to England, he became a distinguished Spitfire pilot. He was shot down in 1942, became a POW and serial escape artist. Awarded an MBE for his wartime exploits, he studied at Oxford, worked for the BBC in India and subsequently as senior producer at BBC Radio Drama. A past president of the Writers' Guild and also a playwright, Bill Ash lives in London.

His co-writer, BRENDAN FOLEY, is an award-winning journalist and a screenwriter. He first met William Ash in the 1980s and has long been enthralled by his story.

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Bill Ash was one of a rare breed - an American prepared to sacrifice his citenship and risk his life to fight the Nazis at a time when the USA was still neutral. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and before long found himself flying Spitfires in combat.

Then in March 1942, Bill was shot down over the Pas de Calais. He survived the crash-landing and, thanks to the bravery of the local civilians, evaded capture for months. He made his way to Paris only to be betrayed to the Gestapo. Tortured and sentenced to death as a spy, he was saved from the firing squad by the intervention of the Luftwaffe, who sent him to the Great Escape POW camp, Stalag Luft III. It was from there that Bill began his extraordinary 'tour' of Occupied Europe, breaking out of one camp, being dispatched to the next - in Poland, Germany and Lithuania. Bill became one of only a handful of serial escape artists to attempt more than a dozen break-outs - over the wire, under it in tunnels, through it with cutters or simply strolling out of the camp gates in disguise. There were years of extraordinary hardship, frustration and brutality - each time he was recaptured Bill's punishment was a long spell in solitary: he was a real-life 'Cooler King' - but through it all he maintained not just remarkable courage , but also an anarchic sense of humour, great humanity and an unstoppable desire for freedom.

From its honest, funny and exciting reflections on life in wartime Britain, to the vivid, compelling, sometimes poignant recollections of his time as a POW, Under the Wire is more than just another memoir. It stands as a tribute to the bravery and resolve, not only of Bill Ash, but of an entire generation.