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Andy McNab
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Andy McNab DCM MM (born 28 December 1959) is a former British soldier, turned novelist. McNab came into public prominence in 1993, when he published his account of the failed SAS mission, Bravo Two Zero. He has subsequently written two other autobiographies and a selection of fiction books, including a specially commissioned story for the Quick Reads Initiative to assist in improving adult literacy. For security reasons, Andy McNab is a pseudonym.
Early life
Andy McNab was born on 28 December 1959, and was abandoned on the steps of Guy's Hospital in Southwark shortly thereafter.
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Encyclopedia
Andy McNab DCM MM (born 28 December 1959) is a former British soldier, turned novelist. McNab came into public prominence in 1993, when he published his account of the failed SAS mission, Bravo Two Zero. He has subsequently written two other autobiographies and a selection of fiction books, including a specially commissioned story for the Quick Reads Initiative to assist in improving adult literacy. For security reasons, Andy McNab is a pseudonym.
Early life
Andy McNab was born on 28 December 1959, and was abandoned on the steps of Guy's Hospital in Southwark shortly thereafter. He was brought up in Peckham, with his adoptive family, involving himself in petty criminality until being arrested for burglary.
In 1976, shortly after his arrest, he aspired for a career as an army pilot, but failed the entry test. In the same year, he enlisted with the Royal Green Jackets at the age of sixteen.
Military career
After McNab enlisted for the Royal Green Jackets in 1976, he was posted to Kent for his basic training, along with boxing for his regimental team. After McNab's basic training, he was posted to the Rifle Depot, in Winchester. In 1977, McNab spent time in Gibraltar as part of his first operational posting, while with 2RGJ. From December 1977 to June 1978, McNab was posted to South Armagh, Northern Ireland as part of the British Army's intervention into the Northern Ireland Troubles. From 1978 to 1979, McNab returned to Armagh as a newly promoted Lance Corporal, and kills for the first time at the age of 19, during a firefight with the PIRA. In 1982, after spending eight years with the Royal Green Jackets, McNab decided to attempt SAS selection. After finally passing in 1984, he left RGJ and transferred to the SAS.
While Serving with B Squadron, 22 SAS for ten years, Andy McNab worked on both covert and overt operations worldwide. They included counter terrorism and drug operations in the Middle and Far East, South and Central America, and Northern Ireland. McNab trained as a specialist in counter terrorism, prime target elimination, demolitions, weapons, tactics, covert surveillance roles and information gathering in hostile environments, and VIP protection. McNab worked on cooperative operations with police forces, prison services, anti-drug forces and Western backed guerilla movements as well as on conventional special operations. In Northern Ireland he spent two years working as an undercover operator with 14 Intelligence Company, going on to become an instructor.
While a serving SAS soldier, McNab worked alongside the Delta Force, FBI, and the DEA. When he left the SAS in 1993, he was the most highly decorated serving soldier in the British Army. He now lectures on security and military related topics, in both the USA and the UK. He also worked as an instructor on the SAS selection and training teams, and instructed foreign special forces in counter terrorism, hostage rescue and survival training.
During the First Gulf War, 1991, McNab commanded Bravo Two Zero; an eight man patrol tasked with destroying underground communication links between Baghdad and north-west Iraq and with finding and destroying mobile Scud missile launchers. The patrol infiltrated Iraq in January 1991, but were soon compromised. An engagement with Iraqi troops ensued, and the patrol was forced to escape and evade on foot to try and reach Syria, an ally to the United Kingdom during the Gulf War. Three of the eight men were killed; four were captured after three days on the run, one escaped. One of the four taken prisoner was McNab, who was held for six weeks and tortured. By the time he was released he was suffering from nerve damage to both hands, a dislocated shoulder, kidney and liver damage and had contracted Hepatitis B. After six months of medical treatment he was back on active service. The exploits of the Bravo Two Zero patrol have been recognised the world over and, in the words of the patrol's commanding officer 'will remain in Regimental history forever'. Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) and Military Medal (MM) during his military career, McNab was the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier when he left the SAS in February 1993.
Post military career
While writing Bravo Two Zero, Andy McNab assumed his pseudonym. When he appears on television to promote his books or to act as a special services expert, his face is shadowed to prevent identification. As Larry King put it when McNab appeared on the Larry King Live show on CNN: "He's in shadow for his security, as he is wanted dead by some terrorist groups." According to the book The Big Breach, by Richard Tomlinson, a renegade MI6 spy, McNab was part of a special training team after the Iraq war, training MI6 recruits in sabotage and guerrilla warfare techniques.
Due to the extremely sensitive nature of his work while serving with the SAS, Andy McNab is the only author who has a legally binding contract, making him submit his fiction to the British Ministry of Defence for review, and he is still believed to be wanted by a number of the world's terrorist organisations. For security, he therefore chooses not to reveal either his face or his current location.
After leaving the Army, McNab developed and maintained a specialist training course for news crews, journalists and members of non-governmental organisations working in hostile environments. He spent time in Hollywood as technical weapons advisor, and trainer on the Michael Mann film Heat helping to engineer how master-thief De Niro would go about pulling off robberies on an armoured car and a bank, and how cop Al Pacino would go about tracking him down and stopping him. He was also the technical advisor on the 2005 crime film Dirty.
In February 2007, McNab returned to Iraq for seven days as The Sun newspaper's security advisor with his old regiment the Royal Green Jackets. Here he researched the background for his new book, Crossfire.
Andy McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in two bestselling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993) and Immediate Action (1995). Bravo Two Zero is the highest selling war book of all time, and sold over 1.7 million copies, with Immediate Action selling 1.4 Million in the UK. To date it has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages. The CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. A BBC film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, was shown on primetime BBC One television in 1999 and released on DVD in 2000. Immediate Action, McNab's autobiography, spent 18 weeks at the top of the best-seller lists following the lifting of an ex-parte injunction granted to the Ministry of Defence in September 1995.
McNab is the author of ten action thrillers, highly acclaimed for their authenticity. Remote Control was published in 1997, and was hailed as the most authentic thriller ever written selling over half a million copies in the UK. McNab's subsequent thrillers, Crisis Four, Firewall, Last Light, Liberation Day, Dark Winter, Deep Black, Aggressor, Recoil and Crossfire have all gone on to sell equally well. The central character in all the books is Nick Stone, an ex-SAS soldier working as a 'K' on deniable operations for British intelligence. McNab's fiction draws extensively on his experiences and knowledge of Special Forces soldiering. He has been officially registered by Nielsen BookScan as a bestselling British thriller writer.
After working on the Miramax film, "Heat", Miramax has acquired the film rights to the first four of McNab's novels, and Crisis Four is currently in production, co-produced by McNab himself. He is also a director of a Hereford-based security company. In conjunction with Spoken Group Ltd, Andy McNab is pioneering spoken drama for download from the Internet and to Mobile phones. These stories include real battle field sound effects. McNab took part in E4's Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack on 13 January 2008.
Books
Non-fiction
Fiction
Nick Stone Missions
Boy Soldier Series (written with Robert Rigby)
- Boy Soldier (US title Traitor, 5 May 2005)
- Payback (6 October 2005)
- Avenger (4 May 2006)
- Meltdown (3 May 2007)
Quick Reads project
- The Grey Man (8 May 2006)
Audio Stories
- Iraq Ambush (May 2007)
- Royal Kidnap (June 2007)
- Roadside Bomb (September 2007)
- Sniper (TBA 2008)
Television
External links
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