Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill (December 20 1916 – April 23 1991) was an Australian writer, whose World War II books were turned into popular movies.

Educated at North Sydney Boys High School, before World War II, Brickhill worked as a journalist. During the war, he was a fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force. As a prisoner of the Germans, Brickhill witnessed the preparation of and the consequences of the mass escape from Stalag Luft III. Brickhill was barred from participating in the actual escape due to claustrophobia although he was active in implementing the plan. He subsequently documented the escape in The Great Escape (New York: Norton, 1950).

Three books by Brickhill were made into movies:

• Reach for the Sky, based on Reach for the Sky: The Story of Douglas Bader, Legless Ace of the Battle of Britain.

• The Dam Busters, based on The Dam Busters, and Operation Chastise, the destruction of dams in the Ruhr valley by RAF No. 617 Sqn.

• The Great Escape, recounting the events of the 1944 escape from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III.

See Related

• "Brickhill, Paul Chester Jerome 1916–1991." Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, 69: 68–69.

External link

[[category:1916 births| [[category:1991 deaths| Australian novelists