‘An inspiration to all under his command’: the cheerful courage of Brian Franks
From our UK edition
They say there are old soldiers and bold soldiers but very few old, bold soldiers. Well, Tim Spicer is pretty old, and there’s no question about his boldness. In a long life spent running towards, rather than away from, danger and adventure, he has consistently put the daring into derring-do. I discovered this when working for him in Iraq in 2004, just as al-Qaeda was doing its worst. He never seemed happier than when terrorists were aiming an RPG at him. To his unflappable soldierly credentials and a buccaneering ability to make a fortune from private security we must now add a late-career talent with the pen. In A Dangerous Enterprise (2021) he told the story of the little known secret second world war flotilla operating from Devon.
