Bigger than Hollywood – the Real Big X
Simon Pearson tells the story of Roger Bushell – aka “Big X” – the man who masterminded the “Great Escape” in 1944 and was played by Richard Attenborough in the famous film 20 years later.
The real Big X, head of the escape committee at Stalag Luft III, however, was a far more compelling character than the man portrayed by Hollywood and renamed Roger Bartlett. Bushell was a Cambridge-educated criminal barrister and the fastest skier in Europe before he was shot down in his Spitfire over Dunkirk in 1940. A talented linguist who spoke fluent French and German, he turned Stalag Luft III into an unlikely outpost of British Intelligence and organised the digging of the famed tunnels Tom, Dick and Harry.Simon is a former obituaries editor of The Times where he held senior positions for more than 30 years. He has also worked for the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Times and the South China Morning Post. His latest book, written with his wife, Fiona Gorman, in 2023 is a biography of the pioneering heart surgeon Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub.
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Bigger than Hollywood – the Real Big X
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