Andy McNab

Your books have reached readers around the world for decades. What would you like to say to the people who have followed your work for so long?

I just want to say thank you, a very big thank you, to all the readers of my books, old and new. I know there are some fantastic books out there for you all to read and enjoy, and so I have to get my finger out every time I write to make it the very best I can do for you.

“The more you read, the more knowledge you gain. The more knowledge you gain, the more power you have.”

You often speak about the importance of literacy. Why do you think reading matters so much — especially for younger people?

I regularly visit schools, young offender institutions and adult prisons, pushing home this very point. It’s a simple fact: the more you read, the more knowledge you gain. The more knowledge you gain, the more power you have to do the things that you want to do. But it’s not just power that reading gives you; it’s empathy and imagination. Reading about different people, different worlds and different situations not only lets you understand things and events outside of your world, but it also generates imagination, the world of the possible. How do you think the Apollo space missions or the iPhone happened?

Which books have had the biggest impact on you?

Meditations — Marcus Aurelius

Roman Emperor and scholar. While leading the Roman army in a ten-year campaign against Germanic tribes, he wrote Meditations. How this guy decided to live, love, and fight is so inspiring that even though he has been dead for nearly 2,000 years, the book continues to resonate today. US gangs even use Meditations as a way to consolidate their cultures and take the fight to their enemies — just like he did.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn — Mark Twain

For me, Twain’s best. A slave and a homeless street kid on the run in America’s deep south. Twain’s take on racism and slavery in ‘real talk’ was banned upon publication and stayed that way for decades, and still remains controversial in the US. It gives you the real-life Django Unchained, and being a Twain novel, it’s both moving and very funny.

Catch-22 — Joseph Heller

Any book that has influenced the coinage of terminology commonly used around the world should be read. Set in Italy during the closing months of World War II with a US Air Force bomber squadron. The ‘catch’ is simple. If you want to fly the increasingly dangerous bombing raids, you are crazy. But if you don’t want to fly, you must be sane and so fit to fly, just like the crazy guy. War, money, sex and lunacy — simply brilliant.

Brave New World — Aldous Huxley

London in the year 2540, and “Community, Identity, Stability” is the motto of this Utopian World State. Babies are born in laboratories, and humans are clinically detached from each other. But on the good side, you are able to fly to Sydney for an evening out. This is a classic science fiction work that remains a significant warning for our society today.

“I have to get my finger out every time I write to make it the very best I can do.”

Have you been reading anything recently?

I have just finished reading 1776 by David McCullough. No wonder this guy has won the Pulitzer Prize twice. It’s a fantastic insight into the beginning of the American Revolution. All the major players are there: King George, George Washington, and, just as importantly, soldiers’ accounts from both sides across all ranks.

When did writing become part of your life?

After 18 years in the army, I received a job offer from a Private Military Company (PMC). With only four years left of my Army contract, I decided to take the job. That’s when I was approached by a senior Army officer who suggested writing about what happened to me and my patrol during the First Gulf War. It had been three years since the war ended, and there was so much conjecture about what this eight-man patrol, call sign Bravo Two Zero, had got up to. So I thought, why not? I was in Colombia working for the PMC when the book was published, and it quickly became the biggest-selling war book of all time. The publishers called me and said, ‘You fancy writing another one?’ I had just come off a two-week patrol in the rainforest, full of zits and insect bites, and didn’t think twice.

“No wonder this guy has won the Pulitzer Prize twice.”

Of all the books you’ve written, which one means the most to you?

It was a 10,000-word story for the Quick Reads literacy initiative. Last Night Another Soldier was the story of a young infantryman in Afghanistan. It was originally a play I wrote for the BBC, based on a Rifleman I met on one of the trips I took to Afghanistan during the war on behalf of the MOD.

I guess it is my favourite because I had the opportunity not only to write about the war but, more importantly, about the young men and women fighting it. Since the book’s publication, I’ve had hundreds of soldiers’ wives, parents, and friends thank me for giving them insight into what their loved ones have been going through. That’s a really good feeling.

What is the maddest non-military thing you’ve done?

It’s going to happen this year. I was at a friend’s house about eight months ago, and as you do, we were talking a load of old rubbish. Then my friend said, ‘Let’s walk to the South Pole, it’ll be like going into space!’ As I normally do when he waffles on, I said ‘Yep, let’s do it.’ And thought no more about it. In fact, I forgot all about it until just before Christmas, when he called and said the trip is definitely on and that he has even persuaded a few more mates to do the tab with us. We are going at the end of the year. Next time I’m ever at my friend’s place, I will keep my mouth shut.

“The publishers called me and said, ‘You fancy writing another one?’”

What advice would you give someone considering writing?

It’s simple — get writing. I’ve met many people who want to write but haven’t actually sat down and got on with it. They tend to think too much about it instead of doing it. If you’ve got something down to read, you’ve got something to criticise. From there, you can say ‘that’s crap, I don’t mean that, what I mean is…’. That’s what, for me anyway, gets the ball rolling. Only when you have something can you get something published. Good luck.

Do you miss the military?

I don’t miss it at all because I always knew that it would end. My length of enlistment was for no more than 22 years, so I always knew that I would be out of the army at some stage, whether I liked it or not.

For ten years now, I’ve been what is known as a ‘Talking Head’ for the MOD, and the military has kept in touch since leaving, and I have been involved in military education as well as the advisory work that has been asked of me. I am also a very proud patron of Help For Heroes, which continues to do brilliant work for our injured servicemen and women.

“If you’ve got something down to read, you have something to criticise.”

Before we finish, a literary question. If you were an animal — perhaps imagined by one of your characters — what might you be, and why?

“I kept on turning the pages of Cat Magazine Monthly whilst keeping the trigger on the dental surgery’s exit door. I felt sorry for him sat in the dentist’s chair getting his molar drilled so that the silicon chip could be buried amongst the filling.

I was sure there was an easier way for him to take the information from here to Yemen, but maybe he liked pain… I was hoping he did, because things were going to get a little worse for him this afternoon when I got to work on that tooth with my pliers. Maybe next time he’d think of stuffing a memory stick down his sock instead.

I waited and turned another page of Cat Mag. It was becoming pretty clear to me that the animal whose life was best squared away was the cat. That’s what I now wanted to be — a big, fat, lazy cat, preferably owned by a doting little old lady.

Cats just do what they do best — eating and sleeping. They don’t give a fuck about anyone or anything, and people love them all the same anyway.

The door burst open, and my target darted across the hallway out into the rain. He had a flight to catch. I reluctantly put down the magazine full of pictures of my hopeful reincarnation and followed him out, checking my jacket pocket for the pliers.”

Andy McNab is a former SAS soldier and the bestselling author of Bravo Two Zero and numerous thrillers. His latest books are available now.

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Interview by Carl Marsh

Further Reading: Bravo Two Zero