Xan Fielding

Xan Fielding, born Alexander Wallace Fielding DSO (26 November 1918 – 19 August 1991), was a British soldier and writer, noted for his English translations of Planet of the Apes and The Bridge on the River Kwai, both by Pierre Boulle.

A British Special Operations Executive agent in World War II, Fielding won the DSO after serving as commander of the underground forces in western Crete with Patrick Leigh Fermor. In late 1943, he was succeeded in Crete by Dennis Ciclitira. Later (1944), he was captured in France by the Gestapo together with Francis Cammaerts and a French officer, Christian Sorensen, while travelling from Apt to Seyes. The three men were, however, soon freed and thus saved from imminent execution by the remarkable intercession of the Polish SOE agent, Krystyna Skarbek.

He served as technical adviser on a film, Ill Met By Moonlight detailing the abduction of the German Major General Heinrich Kreipe by Leigh Fermor and Bill Stanley Moss in enemy-occupied Crete, based on the book written by Moss, starring Dirk Bogarde and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in 1958

He married Daphne (née Vivian) on 11 July 1953; they were divorced in 1978. Fielding later married the widow of Armenian artist Arshile Gorky.

He was a close friend of Lawrence Durrell and Patrick Leigh Fermor. 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, DSO (1990).
• Aeolus Displayed (1991).
• Images of Spain (1991).
• Hideous Disguise (1994).

See also

• Sophie Moss