Chris Ryan was born near Newcastle in 1961. He joined the SAS in 1984. During his ten years he was involved in overt and covert operations and was also Sniper team commander of the anti-terrorist team. During the Gulf War, Chris was the only member of Bravo Two Zero, an eight-man patrol, to escape from Iraq, of which three colleagues were killed and four captured. It was the longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS. For this he was awarded the Military Medal. For his last two years he was selecting and training potential recruits for the SAS.
He left the SAS in 1994 and, in 1995, wrote about his experiences in the Gulf War in The One That Got Away. He has since gone on to write a number of best-selling novels such as Land of Fire, Stand By, Stand By and Zero Option.
