The Great Escape

Anyone who knows me will tell you that possibly my favorite story of all time (in both book and film) is The Great Escape. I first read the book as a child at my grandparents’ home, and I loved it. While I did have rather odd reading taste for an elementary school-aged girl, my choices during that visit were limited to the books on my grandparents’ shelves. My grandfather was a really interesting man, aspects of whom will forever pepper heroes of my own books. I remember discussing the book with him in the living room of the log cabin he and my grandmother built. (Mind  you, they did not have it built. They did it themselves. My grandmother helped stripped the bark from the logs.) The Great Escape was my grandfather’s book, and he was, I think, pleasantly surprised by my interest in war stories—an interest which continues to this day. A later viewing of the film version sealed the deal for me. I mark my coming of age by which of the main characters I was in love with at various points of my life.

I am stunned and thrilled to discover that new details have emerged to flesh out the story and, in particular Roger Bushell, who conceived this amazing plan and brought it to fruition under the most impossible of circumstances. His own love life had better plot twists than most romance novels. Romantic! (And tragic.) AND there was a fourth tunnel! If you click the link within the above referenced article, there is yet another bittersweet love story at the end.