Andy McNab

When McNab joined the army he was found to have the reading age of an eleven-year-old. Shortly before his seventeenth birthday he read his first book, entitled Janet and John. Speaking in 2019, McNab recall how "I can vividly remember the sense of pride and achievement I felt. It was meant for primary school children but I didn’t care ... From then on I read anything and everything I could get my hands on."

In the 2017 Birthday Honours, McNab was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to literacy and charity. The award recognised his charity work with The Reading Agency promoting literacy, particularly in young adults and prisoners. The award was gazetted under the name "Andrew McNab".

In August 2014, McNab was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

The New Recruit – Liam Scott series (Young Adult)

After his work on the Miramax film Heat, Miramax acquired the film rights to the first four of McNab's novels, and Echelon (2012) is currently in production, based on the book Firewall (2000). McNab will co-produce and co-write the script and also act as technical adviser. In 2014, Luke Evans was cast as Tom Buckingham in Red Notice with Nick Love as director. McNab will be consulting as technical advisor and have a role in production as well.

McNab worked with DICE serving as the game's consultant on military tactics for Battlefield 3. He penned a tie-in novel called Battlefield 3: The Russian, which follows the story of a Spetsnaz GRU commando Dmitri "Dima" Mayakovsky and his involvement against the PLR (People's Liberation & Resistance), an Iranian paramilitary insurgent group, as well as his connection to the antagonist. The novel was released on 25 October 2011.

McNab has also written books for Quick Reads, a charity that supports World Book day. BBC raw words offers exclusive audio versions of the latest Quick Reads by Andy McNab, Last Night Another Soldier (2010), read by Rupert Degas. Other fiction books include Audio Stories, Men at War series, Battlefield 3, Tom Buckingham series, and two young adult series: Dropzone Stories and The New Recruit series.

McNab took part in E4's Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack on 13 January 2008.

In February 2007, McNab returned to Iraq for seven days as The Sun newspaper's security advisor with 2nd Battalion, The Rifles.

After leaving the Army, McNab developed and maintained a specialist training course for news crews, journalists and members of non-governmental organisations working in hostile environments. He spent time in Hollywood as a technical weapons advisor and trainer on Michael Mann's film Heat. He was also the technical advisor on the 2005 crime film Dirty.

He came into public prominence in 1993 when he published a book entitled Bravo Two Zero containing an account of a military mission in which he had taken part with the Special Air Service (SAS) during the Persian Gulf War, for which he had been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He had previously been awarded the Military Medal in 1979 for gallantry in action whilst serving with the Royal Green Jackets in Northern Ireland.

Awarded both the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Military Medal during his military career, McNab claims to have been the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier when he left the SAS in February 1993.

McNab has written about his experiences in the SAS in three best-selling books, Bravo Two Zero (1993), Immediate Action (1995), and Seven Troop (2008). Bravo Two Zero sold over 1.7 million copies, with Immediate Action selling 1.4 million in the UK. It has been published in 17 countries and translated into 16 languages. The CD spoken word version of Bravo Two Zero, narrated by McNab, sold over 60,000 copies and earned a silver disc. A BBC film of Bravo Two Zero, starring Sean Bean, was shown on prime time BBC One television in 1999 and released on DVD in 2000. Immediate Action, McNab's autobiography, spent 18 weeks at the top of the best-seller lists following the lifting of an ex-parte injunction granted to the Ministry of Defence in September 1995.

During the Gulf War, McNab commanded an eight-man SAS patrol, designated Bravo Two Zero, that was given the task of destroying underground communication links between Baghdad and north-west Iraq and with tracking Scud missile movements in the region. The patrol was dropped into Iraq on 22 January 1991, but was soon compromised, following which it attempted an escape on foot towards Syria, the closest coalition country.

In 1982, after six years' service with the Royal Green Jackets (RGJ), and having been promoted to the rank of sergeant, he applied for transfer into the Special Air Service Regiment, which was approved by the RGJ. After failing his first attempt as United Kingdom Special Forces Selection, he passed in 1984, and was attached to the SAS, with which he remained for the rest of his career in the British Army. During his 10 years with "Air Troop", B Squadron, 22 SAS Regiment, he served with Al Slater, Frank Collins and Charles "Nish" Bruce. Writing in The Daily Telegraph in November 2008, McNab describes Bruce as "one of my heroes."

He was posted to Kent for his basic training, and boxed for his regimental team. After basic training, he was posted to the Rifle Depot in Winchester. In 1977 he spent time in Gibraltar as part of his first operational posting, while with 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets.

From December 1977 to June 1978, he was posted to South Armagh, Northern Ireland, as part of the British Army's Operation Banner. In 1978 and 1979, he returned to Armagh as a newly promoted Lance Corporal, and claimed to have killed for the first time during a fire-fight with the Provisional Irish Republican Army. McNab wrote of the incident: "I remember vividly the first time I had to kill someone to stay alive. I was a 19-year-old soldier in Keady, South Armagh, and my patrol stumbled across six IRA soldiers, preparing for an ambush. When the shooting started, they were just 20 metres away from my patrol. I was scared, very scared." He was awarded the Military Medal for this incident. However, security sources later reported that the person McNab shot was only wounded and died as a result of injuries from a separate shoot-out later that day.

Steven Billy Mitchell, CBE, DCM, MM (born 28 December 1959), usually known by the pseudonym and pen-name of Andy McNab, is a novelist and former British Army infantry soldier.

McNab was born on 28 December 1959. Found abandoned on the steps of Guy's Hospital in Southwark in a Harrods shopping bag, he was brought up in Peckham, with his adoptive family. He did not do well in school, and eventually attended nine schools in seven years. After dropping out of school McNab worked at various odd jobs, usually for friends and relatives, and was involved in petty criminality, finally being arrested for burglary in 1976. Partly inspired by his brother's time in the army, he wanted to join the British Army. He failed the entry test for training as an army pilot, but enlisted with the Royal Green Jackets at the age of sixteen after being released from juvenile detention.