Yorkshire born author is inspired by the Beatles

Airmen’s Incredible Escapes – A message for future generations

In the latest book by Yorkshire born author Bryn Evans, Airmen’s Incredible Escapes, the resilience and self-sacrifice of the human spirit belie the horrors of war, in a message for us today and for future generations.

When the Beatles released ‘Paperback Writer’ in May 1966, another No 1 chart hit for the ‘Fab Four’, teenager Bryn Evans wondered if he could become a writer. The Beatles’ hit song would stay with him, and over the years it symbolised a tantalising goal, to be a paperback writer.

In 2014 Pen and Sword Books published one of Bryn Evans’ military history books, The Decisive Campaigns of the Desert Air Force 1942-1945, in hardback. Now in response to excellent feedback from readers, Pen and Sword have reissued this gripping account of the legendary Desert Air Force in paperback. The recurring lyric in the Beatles’ song, ‘So I wanna be a paperback writer’, which they wrote as if in a plaintive plea in a letter to the Daily Mail, has come true for Bryn.

He is the author of three other books on the Second World War: With the East Surreys in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy 1942-1945 (2012); Air Battle for Burma (2016); and Airmen’s Incredible Escapes (Nov 2020). All are in print with Pen and Sword Books UK. Bryn’s books have elicited excellent reviews for their thorough research, an engaging focus on the personal accounts of many participants, and an absorbing pace of the narrative.

Bryn was born in Doncaster, and after his family moved to Bradford he attended the city’s Belle Vue Boys Grammar School, where he captained the 1st XI football team winning the Bradford schools’ under-18 championship. Following his school days Bryn worked for a time in Leeds, and then trained as an accountant at Bradford City Treasury. But foreign shores beckoned and for six years he worked as an accountant in Lusaka, Zambia.

It was there that he met a Scottish girl, Jean, and they soon married. Bryn and Jean have lived and worked in many countries, including Australia, Germany, the Middle East, New Zealand, UK and Zambia, and they have also travelled extensively in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Gulf, the Pacific, Scandinavia, South America, and the USA. Bryn and Jean now live in Queensland, Australia.

Bryn’s latest book published in September 2020, Airmen’s Incredible Escapes, is a collection of personal accounts by Allied airmen of their extraordinary, fortunate and improbable survival against all the odds in the Second World War. Veterans’ personal stories reveal the stresses and fears which they overcame in their inspirational struggles to survive.

They found within themselves a fortitude and resilience to live each day as if it were their last. It is an example we and future generations must emulate. The stories in Airmen’s Incredible Escapes are an inspiration, and leave a message for us all, and future generations.

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The early reviews of Airmen’s Incredible Escapes are excellent, and Bryn has begun research for a follow-up sequel of similar, miraculous survival stories. Veterans, their families and friends, who would like to contribute, can contact Bryn by email – bryn.evans@ozemail.com.au.

Bryn Evans

December 2020

You can order a copy here.