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Longest Walk Home

Ray Bailey | David Wilkins
€25.99
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A01=David Wilkins
A01=Ray Bailey
Author_David Wilkins
Author_Ray Bailey
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Category=DNXM
Category=DNXP
Category=NHWR7
Churchill
Damien Lewis
Dunkirk
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eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
escape
finest hour
great escape
hero
heroes
Hitler
Nazis
Operation Mincemeat
POW
soldier
WWII

Product details

  • ISBN 9781529447064
  • Weight: 550g
  • Dimensions: 158 x 236mm
  • Publication Date: 11 Sep 2025
  • Publisher: Quercus Publishing
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
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Description

In 1940, Private Raymond Bailey, a 21 year old Vauxhall motors apprentice, serving with the 1st Kensington Regiment, was captured in Northern France, becoming a Nazi prisoner of war. But he wouldn't remain one for long...

The Longest Walk Home is the incredible account of his daring 2,000 mile escape across Europe and over the Pyrenees, to the safety of British Gibraltar, and home in time for Christmas. Along the way Ray has nerve-shredding encounters with German soldiers and the Spanish Civil Guard. Often he is exhausted and starving. All that keeps him going is his youthful energy, unfailing optimism, and the kindness of strangers who risk their own safety to help him.

Ray's escape is remarkable, but so too is his memoir. It was written within a year or two of the events it describes, when Ray was just 22, and despite Ray's obvious writing talent it was lost for decades until it was discovered at auction in an unmarked box of WWII memorabilia by David Wilkins. Ray's is a true unheard voice, and one of the last from this time.
About David Wilkins | Ray Bailey
Raymond Bailey was born in 1919, the son of a miner. He left school aged fourteen and began work as an apprentice lathe operator at the Vauxhall Car Works in Luton. In 1939 he was in the first wave of young British men called up to fight in the Second World War. After basic training, Ray's battalion was posted to France and thrown into some of the bloodiest fighting of the entire conflict. In June 1940, just a few weeks after arriving in France, Ray found himself among the thousands of British soldiers captured at the catastrophic Battle of St Valery.

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