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I do not believe it is too unjust to say that Chris Ryan's popularity lies in the fact that he was once upon a time an active SAS officer. The fact that he has in fact lived through similar things as the stories he is depicting in his novels gives him that edge over other action and thriller writers.
Chris Ryan originally applied for selection with the 23 Territorial SAS regiment after unsuccessfully trying to get into the army as a boy soldier at 16. His cousin, Billy, was already in it, so he suggested that Ryan come down to the base for a few weekends to see what the army was really like and he eventually joined 23 SAS, beginning training and selection for the 22nd, regular SAS, as a medic.
The most intriguing part of Ryan's career was his part of the disastrously botched 'Bravo Two Zero' patrol in Iraq in the First Gulf War. Originally tasked to report on enemy positions and call in aircraft to attack any worthwhile targets, as well as destroying fibre optic communication lines, the patrol's signaller was given the wrong codes for the radio, their SATCOM did not function, their emergency TACBE radio devices were almost 250 miles out of their operational range and after being told they would be operating in a hot and sandy desert they turned up in barren and rocky area where the temperatures plummeted below OC during the night.
During the second day their position was compromised by a local farmer driving a bulldozer. According to Ryan in his fictionalized account The One That Got Away, the patrol was attacked by a platoon of soldiers with AK-47s after they were spotted and fired on by two armed civilians. Retreating across the desert, the squad was split up and over the next few days all were either captured or killed save for Ryan. He managed to travel over 200 miles in eight days on foot, in both the freezing cold and baking sun suffering from sleep deprivation, starvation, diarrhoea, severe dehydration and other such physical ailments including loss of all his toenails.
He lost a considerable amount of weight and only managed to escape by reaching the Syrian border and, using a slip of paper promising his finder five thousand pounds, he eventually reached the British embassy and got to safety. Chris Ryan made history with the 'longest escape and evasion by an SAS trooper or any other soldier' and has since set about making his fortune in novels, computer games and documentaries all based on his experiences.
His latest offering, Strike Back, promises to be more of the same Clancy-esque dramatic soldier stories. One can hope that he used some of SAS training to kick his ghost writer into the middle of next week, but his position at the top of ASDA books bestseller list is testament to the popularity of an author who truly can claim to have lived through what he writes. If this realism appeals to you, then Ryan's books are a must.
About the Author
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