Bill Ash was born in Texas in 1917. On the outbreak of war in 1939 he left America and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. From there, he went to England and flew Spitfires. He was shot down over occupied France in 1942 and became a PoW. Awarded an MBE for his wartime exploits, he joined the Communist party and was involved in sheltering Hollywood exiles in the '50s. He worked for the BBC as their India correspondent and subsequently as senior producer of BBC Radio Drama. He also became Head of the Writers' Guild and wrote a number of plays. William Ash died in April 2014 (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/29/bill-ash )

Brendan Foley grew up in Belfast. He divides his time between London and California. An award-winning features journalist, he ran a successful communications consultancy and now writes full-time, including fiction, biography and screenplays. He first met Bill Ash in the 1980s and, inspired by the Spitfire pilot's life, wrote a screenplay of his wartime adventures. He encouraged Bill to tell his story to a wider audience, through Under the Wire.