The Man Who Was Saturday: The Extraordinary Life of Airey Neave
Patrick Bishop charts Airey Neave’s journey from Colditz escaper to MI9 mastermind and influential politician.
- Author
- Patrick Bishop
- Publisher
- William Collins
- Price
- £20
- ISBN
- 9780008300904
- Published
- 2019
The Man Who Was Saturday: The Extraordinary Life of Airey Neave by Patrick Bishop
Patrick Bishop follows Airey Neave from his first encounters with Nazi Germany in 1933 through soldiering, capture, and repeated escape attempts that led him to Colditz. Neave’s January 1942 breakout with Dutch officer Anthony Luteyn made him the first British officer to escape from the supposedly escape-proof fortress. From Switzerland he relied on Pat Line couriers, Louis Nouveau’s Marseille safe house, and a Pyrenees crossing to reach Spain, Gibraltar, and eventually England.
Back in Britain Neave was recruited by MI9, adopting the code name “Saturday.” Bishop recounts his role in organising the European escape lines, establishing the Freteval Forest camp, shepherding evaders home after D-Day, and navigating the jealousies of conventional staffs wary of special duty units. The narrative continues through Neave’s legal work at the Nuremberg trials, service with IS9, and long political career as MP for Abingdon and architect of Margaret Thatcher’s leadership bid, culminating in his 1979 assassination. It is essential reading for anyone studying MI9 and the escape lines.
William Collins. £20. ISBN 9780008300904.