Author: Bailey, Ray

True war & combat stories

Published on 11 September 2025 by Quercus Publishing in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 352 pages, 10 integrated b/w images
241 x 166 x 33 | 552g

In 1940, Private Raymond Bailey, a 21-year-old Vauxhall motors apprentice, 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.