The famous author of The Wooden Horse here selects eighteen firsthand accounts of escape ranging from the 16th century to the 1950s. Linked by commmentaries, they weave a rich tapestry of humour and fortitude, and pay tribute to the escapers of many wars. Williams reveals their problems and consolations, their attitude of mind, and the impulses which make a person pit himself against fantastic odds. The accounts include John Gerard's escape from the Tower of London in 1597, Casanova's scramble across the roof-tops of Venice in 1736, a Yankee soldier's description of a primitive tunnel engineered by Colonel Rose in the American Civil War, Sir WInston Churchill fleeing the Boers, and some of the most persistent escapers of the two World Wars from Germany to Libya and Turkey, from France to Malaya, Greece and Italy...