'Keeps up the suspense to the end.' The Times Literary Supplement
'An extraordinary, and largely forgotten wartime story -- brought back to life in this Boys' Own account.' The Daily Mail
High in the Tuscan hills above Florence, an elaborate medieval castle, converted to a POW camp on Mussolini's personal orders, holds one of the most illustrious groups of prisoners in the history of warfare.
The dozen or so British and Commonwealth senior officers includes three knights of the realm and two VCs. The youngest of them is 48, the oldest 63. One is missing a hand and an eye. Another suffers with a gammy hip. Against insuperable odds, these extraordinary middle-aged POWs plan a series of daring escape attempts, culminating in a complex tunnel deep beneath the castle.
One rainswept night in March 1943, six men will burst from the earth beyond the castle's curtain wall and slip away. By assorted means, the three Brits, two New Zealanders and a half-Belgian aristocrat will attempt to make it to neutral Switzerland, over 200 miles away.
- ISBN10 1250095859
- ISBN13 9781250095855
- Publish Date 18 July 2017 (first published 2 February 2017)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 16 June 2021
- Imprint St. Martin's Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English