Andy McNab is a one-man publishing industry. He first became known when he published Bravo Two Zero - his account of a failed SAS patrol in Iraq during the 1990 Gulf War. The fourteenth book in his Nick Stone series is set in lawless Somalia and is called Dead Centre. He talked to Read On presenter Clare Carson at the Cheltenham Literary Festival.
Do you enjoy going to book festivals?
This is only the second time I have done it. I did Hay about four or five years ago but literally went in and out so, in reality it's the first time I've actually experienced one of these festivals and it's good fun I'm enjoying it.
Is it still important to you to keep your identity hidden?
Yes. When I was in the Special Air Forces I was working as a specialist in Northern Ireland with Special Branch undercover policemen and showing my face potentially still puts them at risk.
Nick Stone is taken all around the world in the latest thriller. He seems a little bit more human in this book than in some of the previous ones.
Like all characters obviously he can't stay where he is. Changing can only happen by things influencing him. At the moment he's got a relationship and things are starting to get normal so the way he thinks about things has to change. So yes I hope he is a bit more human. He needs to be.
Your research is very detailed. Do you make it your business to keep up to date with everything that is happening in the Services?
Yes, I'm very fortunate. I'm a part of a private security company so I go to places like Iraq when the war was on and obviously at the moment the conflict in Afghanistan. I also do some work for the UK Ministry of Defence so I spend a lot of time with soldiers both here in the UK and abroad. There are lot of things that happen that I can put it into a fictional environment. Dead Centre is loosely based on a kidnap and ransom job that was happening last year in Somali. It's easier to write when it's already happened, you don't have to figure it out.
Have you ever compromised your fellow workers in the Special Branch by putting this into the public domain?
No, not at all. All the books go through the Ministry of Defence who actually have a very good system which looks at material to make sure there's nothing that affects national security.
Bravo Two Zero changed the public's perception and understanding of what was happening. Did you intend that to happen?
I was asked to write it by the Military. I was leaving the Special Air Services after 18 years in the army and was going to work for a private security company and the suggestion about Bravo Two Zero came up. The idea was to stop all the conjecture about the operation very much like the RAF had published Tornado Down about the Tornado crew that was taken prisoner. No one was expecting the book to do as well as it did, I think it is still the biggest selling war book in the world.
You have a huge following amongst RNIB listeners. Have you got any knowledge of what it is like to be partially sighted?
No personal knowledge but there was a young soldier with an infantry regiment that I met on one of my MOD trips in Iraq. A couple of weeks later his vehicle got hit, south of Basra, and he lost most of his sight. I met him again through my work for Help for Heroes as I'm a patron. He now spends a lot of time at the college for blind pupils in Hereford teaching blind and partially sighted teenage kids how to play football. You feel proud - here's a guy whose been sighted all his life, he's been in conflict, he's been injured but actually what he does, in military terms, is crack on, which he is doing very well.
Through your Help for Heroes work presumably that's just one of many stories of people who are overcoming things on a daily basis?
Absolutely. I think in comparison with others we are very fortunate in this country, and when things do happen, whether it's something financial or physical, all of a sudden it's a major drama. First of all people find it hard to accept it's happened and, secondly, sometimes no one is to blame so you've got to get on with it or you spend the rest of your life being bitter or being totally consumed by feelings that are counter productive. The military culture deals with that in a really good way.
We have lots of books by Andy McNab in the Library
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Bravo Two Zero available in braille, TB 9869
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Brute force available in braille, giant print, TB 18494
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Dead Centre available in all formats.