Barbed Wire and Footlights, Seven Stalags to Freedom

Braunton: Merlin Books, 1988 soft cover, light dust soiling, 124pp. Autobiography of Frank Taylor, born 22nd of February 1921 at Kirkhill, Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland. Educated at the Edinburgh Academy and trained for the stage at the Scottish School of Drama, under the direction of Miss Sybil Attwell. He made his professional debut as the Second Page in Richard of Bordeaux at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, on the 26th of September, 1938. At the outbreak of the Second World War he joined the RAF, serving 5 years, and as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner served on two Squadrons, 608, and 217, before being shot down and taken prisoner in February, 1942. After an attempted escape and incarceration in no fewer than seven POW camps he was liberated on the 2nd of May, 1945 by the British 2nd Army’s 11th Armoured Division. On demobilization he was engaged as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Mercury Theatre, London, under the direction of E. Martin Browne. As an actor, and singer training under Robert Bumett, Edinburgh, and Dawson Freer, London, he appeared in several London West End productions including Pacific 1860 with Mary Martin, Much Ado About Nothing with Robert Donat, Pericles with Paul Schofield, The Silver Curlew with Denys Blakelock, and Oklahoma with Howard Keel. From 1951 to 1954 he toured South Africa, for African Theatres in Seagulls Over Sorrento with Clifford Mollison, and then Australia, and New Zealand, for J. C. Williamson’s. Settling permanently in Sydney in 1956 Frank has appeared in numerous theatre, radio, and TV productions, but is probably best known to the general public as Sgt ‘Scotty' Macleod in the long running television series Division 4. Frank was the East of Scotland junior tennis champion in 1938, has recorded four hundred books for the Royal Blind Society of New South Wales, and won the Penguin Award for best supporting television actor in 1972.. First Edition. Soft Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 12mo - over 6? - 7? tall.