Xan Fielding, born Alexander Wallace Fielding DSO

Distinguished Service Order

The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...

 (26 November 1918 – 19 August 1991), was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 soldier and writer, noted for his English translations of Planet of the Apes and The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a 1957 British World War II film by David Lean based on The Bridge over the River Kwai by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–43 for its historical setting. It stars William...

, both by Pierre Boulle

Pierre Boulle

Pierre Boulle was a French novelist largely known for two famous works, The Bridge over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes .-Biography:...

.

A British Special Operations Executive

Special Operations Executive

The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...

 agent in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Fielding won the DSO after serving as commander of the underground forces

Cretan resistance

The Cretan resistance was a resistance movement against Nazi Germany by the residents of the Greek island of Crete during World War II. Part of the larger Greek Resistance, it lasted from May 20, 1941, when the German Wehrmacht invaded the island in the Battle of Crete, until the fall of 1945 when...

 in western Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 with Patrick Leigh Fermor

Patrick Leigh Fermor

Sir Patrick "Paddy" Michael Leigh Fermor, DSO, OBE was a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during World War II. He was widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer", with books including his classic A Time of...

. In late 1943, he was succeeded in Crete by Dennis Ciclitira

Dennis Ciclitira

Dennis Ciclitira was a British soldier and businessman of Greek descent. He was born in Patras, Greece but was raised in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, after his father Demosthenes emigrated to the UK and set up a business importing dried fruit....

. Later (1944), he was captured in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 by the Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

 together with Francis Cammaerts

Francis Cammaerts

Francis Charles Albert Cammaerts DSO was an outstanding Special Operations Executive agent who organised French Resistance groups to sabotage German communications in occupied France.-Early life:...

 and a French officer, Christian Sorensen, while travelling from Apt

Apt, Vaucluse

Apt is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.It lies on the left bank of the Calavon, east of Avignon...

 to Seyes. The three men were, however, soon freed and thus saved from imminent execution by the remarkable intercession of the Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 SOE agent, Krystyna Skarbek

Krystyna Skarbek

Krystyna Skarbek, GM, OBE, Croix de guerre was a Polish Special Operations Executive agent. She became celebrated especially for her daring exploits in intelligence and irregular-warfare missions in Nazi-occupied Poland and France....

.

He served as technical adviser on a film, Ill Met By Moonlight detailing the abduction

Kidnap of General Kreipe

The Kidnap of General Kreipe was a Second World War operation by the Special Operations Executive, an organisation of the United Kingdom. The mission took place on the German occupied island of Crete in May 1944....

 of the German Major General Heinrich Kreipe

Heinrich Kreipe

Karl Heinrich Georg Ferdinand Kreipe was a German general, who served in World War II. He is most famous for his spectacular abduction by British and Cretan resistance fighters from occupied Crete in April 1944....

 by Leigh Fermor and Bill Stanley Moss

W. Stanley Moss

Ivan William "Billy" Stanley Moss MC , was a British army officer in World War II, and later a successful writer, broadcaster, journalist and traveller. He served with the Coldstream Guards and the Special Operations Executive . He was a best-selling author in the 1950s, based both on his novels...

 in enemy-occupied Crete, based on the book written by Moss, starring Dirk Bogarde

Dirk Bogarde

Sir Dirk Bogarde was an English actor and novelist. Initially a matinee idol in such films as Doctor in the House and other Rank Organisation pictures, Bogarde later acted in art-house films such as Death in Venice...

 and directed by Michael Powell

Michael Powell (director)

Michael Latham Powell was a renowned English film director, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger...

 and Emeric Pressburger

Emeric Pressburger

Emeric Pressburger was a Hungarian-British screenwriter, film director, and producer. He is best known for his series of film collaborations with Michael Powell, in a multiple-award-winning partnership known as The Archers and produced a series of classic British films, notably 49th Parallel , The...

 in 1958

Fielding later married the widow of Armenian

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 artist Arshile Gorky

Arshile Gorky

Arshile Gorky was an Armenian-born American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. As such, his works were often speculated to have been informed by the suffering and loss he experienced of the Armenian genocide.-Early life:...

. He was previously married to Daphne Fielding

Daphne Fielding

Hon. Daphne Winifred Louise Fielding, née Vivian , was a popular British author in the early 20th century....

.

He was a close friend of Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence Durrell

Lawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...

 and Patrick Leigh Fermor

Patrick Leigh Fermor

Sir Patrick "Paddy" Michael Leigh Fermor, DSO, OBE was a British author, scholar and soldier, who played a prominent role behind the lines in the Cretan resistance during World War II. He was widely regarded as "Britain's greatest living travel writer", with books including his classic A Time of...

. Several of Fermor's travelogues begin with a letter addressed to Fielding.

Works

• The Stronghold: An Account of the Four Seasons in the White Mountains of Crete (1953).
• Hide and Seek (1954) — wartime memoirs.
• Corsair Country (1959).
• Translation of Gabriel Chevallier's "Clochmerle-les-Bains" (1964)
• Money Spinner: Monte Carlo and Its Fabled Casino (1977).
• Best of Friends: The Brenan-Partridge Letters (editor, 1986).
• One Man in His Time: The life of Lieutenant-Colonel N.L.D. ('Billy') McLean
  Neil McLean (politician)
  Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Loudon Desmond McLean DSO, known as Billy McLean , was a British Army intelligence officer and politician who led a celebrated Special Operations Executive operation in Albania during the Second World War, and later attempted to overthrow Communism in the country...
  
  , DSO (1990).
• Aeolus Displayed (1991).
• Images of Spain (1991).
• Hideous Disguise (1994).