Andy McNab is the pseudonym of a former SAS soldier who first came to prominence when he published his account of the SAS patrol Bravo Two Zero, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He has written two other autobiographies and numerous fictional books. All content in his books have to be checked by the authorities prior to going to print.
McNab was found abandoned outside Guy’s Hospital in London on 28th December 1959. He was brought up in Peckham by his adoptive family and after dropping out of school and being involved in petty crime, McNab enlisted with the Royal Green Jackets at the age of 16. His military career included postings to Gibraltar and South Armagh before finally transferring to the SAS in 1984. He eventually became an instructor and was involved in special operations during the First Gulf War. He became one of the SAS’s most highly decorated soldiers before leaving the SAS in 1993 and he was then recruited by MI6 training team. His expertise has been used to train news crews and journalists working in hostile environments and he has also given technical advice in Hollywood for scenes in films such as Heat and Dirty.
McNab has written a series of 13 novels based on an ex-SAS soldier, Nick Stone, working for British intelligence. Many of the situations have obviously been influenced by McNab’s own experiences and he has been officially registered as a best-selling British thriller writer. He has written a number of novels with Robert Rigby and Kym Jordan.
Bravo Two Zero – (non-fiction) – 1993
This book recounts the story of an SAS patrol behind enemy lines in Iraq, in 1991, which was led by the author and also on the same mission another famous writer “Chris Ryan”. According to the book, at one stage, the patrol evicted all occupants from a taxi and drove until they reached a military check point, where Lane shot and killed one soldier, while the others in the group killed two more.
Firewall – 2000
Offered the lucrative freelance job of kidnapping a mafia warlord and delivering him to St Petersburg, it seems to Stone that his problems are over. In fact, they are only just beginning. Stone enters the bleak underworld of the former Soviet republic of Estonia and he soon finds himself caught between implacable enemies, for Russia has embarked upon a concerted cyber-espionage offensive, hacking into some of the West’s most sensitive military secrets. American and British intelligence agencies are determined to thwart them and the mafia are waiting in the wings with their own chillingly brutal solution.
Crossfire – 2007
Bodyguarding a TV crew on the streets of war-torn Basra, Nick Stone seems certain to die when insurgent gunmen attack. Only the reporter’s swift action saves his life. When the reporter vanishes within hours, presumed kidnapped, Stone is asked by the Intelligence Service to find him. The trail leads from Iraq to London, Dublin, and ultimately Kabul. Caught in the crossfire, Stone’s nightmare is only just beginning – for the hunter has suddenly become the hunted, in a heart-stopping race against time.
Dead Centre – 2011
In 2005, Nick Stone is working undercover in Indonesia, to retrieve incriminating material from amongst the tsunami-ravaged chaos of a devastated landscape. His team is attacked and a man dies — but not before he makes an agonising promise that will return one day to haunt him.
Moscow, March 2011, semi-retired but restless, Stone finds himself at the centre of an extraordinary encounter which turns his world upside down. Stone is hurtled into his most complex and compelling mission yet, a mission that leads him from the Alpine enclaves of the super-rich to war-torn Somalia, where piracy, extortion and betrayal lurk.