Born in Guildford, Surrey, on November 25, 1941, the son of two literary figures, Gerald Seymour now lives in the West Country. He joined ITN in 1963, covering The Great Train Robbery, Vietnam, Ireland, the Munich Olympics massacre, Germany’s Red Army, Italy’s Red Brigade, and Palestinian groups. Harry’s Game, was his first book, published in 1975, to great acclaim. Seymour then gave up reporting. Television adaptations have been made of Harry’s Game, The Glory Boys, The Contract, Red Fox, Field Of Blood and The Waiting Time. The summary of The Corporal’s Wife (2013) goes as follows. A suspenseful and thrilling novel about a small British team of men sent into Iran to smuggle out the feisty, independent Farideh. If they are caught, they will all be executed by the fundamentalist government – the Brits because they are effectively spies, and Farideh because her husband is regarded as a traitor and she has a dangerous mind of her own. Farideh’s husband is a corporal in the Revolutionary Guard, entrapped by MI6 and held in a safe house in Austria for interrogation. His lowly position would not normally make him a target, but his job as a driver to a top general means that he knows the location of secret nuclear sites and has overheard many unguarded conversations. But he won’t talk unless Farideh is brought out of Iran. The SAS say it’s too dangerous, but the director of the operation doesn’t want to lose his prize. He assembles a little team of three ex-soldiers and one student drop-out who knows the language and smuggles them into Tehran. The journey back out is an epic of drama and suspense, culminating in a never-to-be-forgotten run for the border. Along the way, we meet many characters, both British and Iranian, who display courage, cowardice, hatred, and love. A thriller in the good old style.
Gerald Seymour
400 pages in Hodder paperbacks
ISBN 978-1444787481