Rick Stroud

Writer Rick Stroud tells the full story of one of the most daring exploits of the Second World War – involving one of Britain’s greatest travel writers, Patrick Leigh Fermor – for the first time. Stroud is the first to draw on all the sources for his account of how a small SOE unit led by Leigh Fermor, with Captain Bill Stanley Moss as his second in command, kidnapped a German general in Nazi-occupied Crete in 1944 and was chased across the mountains as they headed for a rendezvous with the Royal Navy. Moss wrote about the events in his book, Ill Met by Moonlight, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Dirk Bogarde as Leigh Fermor.

Stroud brings the story to life, explaining the devastating consequences of the mission for all involved and describing the role played by Crete in the war. Stroud is also author of the acclaimed The Phantom Army of Alamein: The Men Who Hoodwinked Rommel, and The Book of the Moon.

Sponsored by HSBC.