Bibliograph

The man who was Saturday, the extraordinary life of Airey Neave, Patrick Bishop

Type

Label

The man who was Saturday, the extraordinary life of Airey Neave, Patrick Bishop

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

resource.biographical

individual biography

Illustrations

mapsportraitsillustrationsplates

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The man who was Saturday

Nature of contents

bibliography

Responsibility statement

Patrick Bishop

Sub title

the extraordinary life of Airey Neave

Summary

Airey Neave was one of the most extraordinary figures of his generation. Taken prisoner during WW2, he was the first British officer to escape from Colditz and using the code name â Saturday' became a key figure in the IS9 escape and evasion organisation which spirited hundreds of Allied airmen and soldiers out of Occupied Europe. A lawyer by training, he served the indictments on the Nazi leaders at the Nuremburg war trials. An ardent Cold War warrior, he was mixed up in several of the great spy scandals of the period. Most people might consider these achievements enough for a single career, but he went on to become the man who made Margaret Thatcher, mounting a brilliantly manipulative campaign in the 1975 Tory leadership to bring her to power. And yet his death is as fascinating as his remarkable life. On Friday, 30 March 1979, a bomb planted beneath his car exploded while he was driving up the ramp of the House of Commons underground car park, killing him instantly. The murder was claimed by the breakaway Irish Republican group, the INLA. His killers have never been identified

Classification