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Damien Lewis

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Damien Lewis became an author largely by accident, when a British publisher asked him if he'd be willing to turn a TV documentary he was working on into a book. That film was shot in the Sudan war zone, and told the story of how Arab tribes seized black African slaves in horrific slave raids. Lewis had been to the Sudan war zone dozens of times over the past decade, reporting on that conflict for the BBC, Channel 4 and US and European broadcasters.

His slavery documentary told the story of a young girl from the Nuba tribe, seized in a raid and sold into slavery in Khartoum, Sudan's capital city, and of her epic escape. The publisher asked Lewis if the Nuba girl would be willing to write her life story as a book, with his help as co-author. The book that they co-wrote was called 'Slave', and it was published to great acclaim, becoming a number one bestseller and being translated into some 30 lanc guages worldwide. It won several awards and has been made into a feature film.

Over the preceding fifteen years Lewis had reported from many war, conflict and disaster zones – including Sudan, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Burma, Afghanistan and the Balkans . He traveled into such areas with aid workers, the British or allied military, UN forces or local military groups, or very much under their own steam. He reported on the horror and human impact of war, as well as the drama of conflict itself. Often, he worked alone. Often, he filmed his own material over extended periods of time living in the war or conflict zone.

During a decade spent reporting from around the world Lewis lived in deserts, rainforests, jungles and chaotic third world cities. In his work and travels he met and interviewed people smugglers, diamond miners, Catholic priests 'gone native', desert nomads, un-contacted tribes, aid workers, bush pilots, arms dealers, genocidal leaders, peacekeepers, game wardens, slum kids, world presidents, heroin traffickers, rebel warlords, child prostitutes, Islamist terrorists, Hindu holy men, mercenaries, bush doctors, soldiers, commanders and spies. He was injured, and was hospitalised with bizarre tropical diseases – including flesh-eating bacteria, worms that burrow through the skin and septicemia – but survived all that and continued to report.

It was only natural that having seen so much of global conflict he would be drawn to stories of war, terrorism, espionage and the often dark causes behind such conflicts when he started writing books. Having written a number of true stories, in 2006 he was chosen as one of the 'nation's 20 favourite authors' and wrote his first fiction, Desert Claw, for the British Government's Quick Read initiative. Desert Claw tells of a group of ex-Special Forces soldiers sent into Iraq to retrieve a looted Van Gogh painting, with a savage twist to the tale. That fiction was followed up by Cobra Gold, an equally compelling tale of global drama and intrigue and shadowy betrayal.

Damien Lewis's work, books and films have won the Index on Censorship , CECRA , Project Censored , Commonwealth Relations , Discovery-NHK BANFF , Rory Peck , BBC One World , BBC-WWF Wildscreen , International Peace Prize , Elle Magazine Grande Prix , Victor Gollanz , and BBC One World Awards. He is a Fellow of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

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Damien Lewis

Damien Lewis

Books from Damien Lewis

Slave: My True Story

The Dog Who Could Fly: The Incredible True Story of a WWII Airman and the Four-Legged Hero Who Flew At His Side

Sergeant Rex: The Unbreakable Bond Between a Marine and His Military Working Dog

SAS Ghost Patrol: The Ultra-Secret Unit That Posed As Nazi Stormtroopers

A Dog Called Hope: The wounded warrior and the dog who dared to love him

The Nazi Hunters

Zero Six Bravo: The Explosive True Story of How 60 Special Forces Survived Against an Iraqi Army of 100,000

Apache Dawn

Judy: A Dog In A Million

Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of The Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII

Hunting the Nazi Bomb: The Special Forces Mission to Sabotage Hitler's Deadliest Weapon

SAS Italian Job: The Secret Mission to Storm a Forbidden Nazi Fortress

Churchill's Band of Brothers: WWII's Most Daring D-Day Mission and the Hunt to Take Down Hitler's Fugitive War Criminals

Freedom: The Sequel to Slave

SAS Shadow Raiders: The Ultra-Secret Mission that Changed the Course of WWII

Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur

SAS great escapes

Bloody Heroes

Bloody Heroes

Little Daughter