How opinions on Chris Ryan writing about the SAS ‘have come 180 degrees’ after controversial start to literary career

His literary career began in controversial circumstances and the dust cover of his latest novel describes how Chris Ryan “turned to writing thrillers to tell the stories the Official Secrets Act stops him putting in his non-fiction” but the former SAS corporal who was the only man to escape death or capture during the infamous Bravo Two Zero mission in the 1991 Gulf War says there has been a sea change in the reaction to him writing books about the regiment over the years.

The man of action who turned to words

“It has come 180 degrees,” he says over the phone as he discusses the publication of his latest adult book Black Ops and teenage fiction Special Forces Cadets 3: Justice. “At first, it was like ‘You shouldn’t be doing that’. Now once guys leave the regiment, they are saying to me, ‘Do you think I could get a book published?’”

He says that in response to one former colleague who had previously criticised him and then went on to make such an approach, he sarcastically advised him, “You should think about that, you might lose some friends”.

Chris Ryan on the private battles soldiers face after life on the front lines

Born in County Durham, Ryan joined the Army at 16 and eventually achieved his dream of being selected into the SAS in 1984. He left the SAS 25 years ago and has written dozens of fiction and non-fiction books since – his first in 1995, The One That Got Away, being his account of the eight-man Bravo Two Zero mission in Iraq during the First Gulf War in which three soldiers died and all of the others were captured, apart from Ryan who managed to escape through a physically and mentally arduous trek for hundreds of miles through enemy territory to the Syrian border.

The book was one of several published about the mission and precisely what happened on the ill-fated operation remain hotly-disputed following a series of rows about the accuracy of details contained in the various accounts. But what nobody has disputed is that Ryan, whose real name is Colin Armstrong, was awarded the Military Medal “in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Gulf in 1991”.

Ryan says things today are much changed from the tensions of the past and that former and current SAS members help him keep his plots up-to-date and accurate.

His latest adult book Black Ops is the seventh focused on the character of SAS hero Danny Black and about dealing with Islamic terrorists behind enemy lines and he says the dust-cover description suggesting the thrillers offer a way around the Official Secrets Act to divulge how the regiment operates is accurate.

“Basically I can put things in and some of the storylines and things they have done on paper,” he says.

But he adds: “I don’t really want to upset the regiment.”

Ryan says in the interests of good relations, he has submitted his next non-fiction book – A Soldier’s History of the SAS – to the regiment ahead of publication even though there is nothing compelling him to do so, unlike serving regiment members who have to have anything they wish to publish officially sanctioned.

He says researching and writing about the history of the regiment and its involvement in covert operations in places such as Oman, Borneo, Northern Ireland and the Falklands, has given him fresh appreciation of its work and an insight into the way the problems which come from fighting in unfamiliar environments are learnt from in future missions. “With Gulf War One, we were making it up as we went along and we made mistakes. But when the second war happened, they went through like a dose of salt.”

Ryan adds that advances in military tracking technology mean his own harrowing experiences on the Bravo Two Zero operation should never be repeated. “You will never ever have another soldier wandering around the desert for seven days and eight nights. You can be located to within millimetres on the ground.”

He says becoming an author “was never the plan” but after moving into instructing potential new SAS recruits shortly after the Iraq mission, a series of events meant he lost his passion for being in the regiment. “Over my ten years I lost 18 colleagues and then on top of that in my last two years instructing, five guys I passed were killed,” he says. “I was 32 and didn’t feel like I was committed any more. One thing about being in the regiment is you have got to be focused.”

He says one of the things that had a particular profound effect on him was the death of the first recruit he had passed into the regiment in Bosnia. Ryan says it was “like losing a son”. “It is difficult even when I talk about it now to explain how hard it was,” he says.

Despite the losses, he says working as an instructor are among his proudest memories of being in the SAS and seeing recruits go through the gruelling selection process to become members of the regiment. “When you are an instructor, you really see into their souls and put pressure on them and how they operate.”

Ryan says his new-found fame that came after the success of his first book had its own consequences, recalling one television show he agreed to participate in where he was debriefed about what he had been through on the Bravo Two Zero mission. “It was bringing up so much I had never thought of before. I would lie in bed after filming and other things would come to me. I was quite depressed afterwards. Now I try not to think about the events but it will come into my mind now and again and I will think of the guys that died.”

While he has generally stuck to military matters with both his fiction and non-fiction writing, in 2008 Ryan published romantic novel The Fisherman’s Daughter under the pen name Molly Jackson. He says the book had deeply personal origins. “My editor said only write about subjects you know. But my mum was dying in a hospice and she said please tell me a story, which I did. At the end, she said try and get that published. She said put it under the name Molly Jackson – that was her sister’s name who also died of cancer. The book meant a lot to me for obvious reasons.”

One of Ryan’s major passions these days is encouraging children to read – both through writing adventure stories aimed at children and young adults and going into schools to share his own story. “I have been to the best schools and the worst schools. I still meet kids at 15 and 16 that have never read a book for pleasure before.”

He says he can still be shocked at negative attitudes towards reading from some. “It is what children are subjected to at home. It is not the fault of the schools, it is the parents. If I wanted an easy life I could just go to boarding schools but I want to go to low-achieving schools. The kids often have a perception I was privileged so when I tell them my family was poor and didn’t have anything, it actually perks them up and they look at me and think we didn’t expect that.”

Channel 4 SAS show 'isn't accurate'

Chris Ryan says the popular Channel 4 series SAS: Who Dares Win which purports to recreate the SAS selection process is not an accurate reflection of real-life – partly because instructors aim to initially give away as little as possible.

“On selection, in your first four weeks, you will be lucky if an instructor talks to you two or three times,” he says.

“You don’t shout at them, you don’t drive them on because that motivates somebody. You want them to feel like they are the only person on selection.”

Chris Ryan will be doing a book signing at St Peters School in York on October 8, at Waterstones in Sheffield Meadowhall on October 12 and will be appearing at Ilkley Festival on October 13 from 3.30pm.