Ian McKay

Ian McKay
A writer with a particular passion for war stories and comedy.


I'm 79 years old and was born, and still live, in the city of Liverpool, in the UK. I'm a writer with a particular passion for war stories, particularly about World War 2; and, conversely, I also love comedy. Throughout the world there is an undeniable, and slightly uncomfortable, interest in all things to do with World War 2. And, whether we like it or not, thousands of people just love looking at, and reading about, anything to do with the subject. I often ask myself, is there something programmed into our DNA that causes this? Do we actually need to actually got to war, every twenty years or so, to satisfy some deep primal need in our psychological makeup?

I recognised this interest, within in myself, as a very young boy; and, since then, I've had a lifelong interest in the subject of war in all its various forms. Maybe it's because, as a small boy, I lived through Herman Goering’s Luftwaffe "Blitzkrieg" of my home city. Maybe, despite my tender years at the time, it’s because of that; that I still have very vivid memories. Memories of the wailing sound of the air raid sirens, signaling "Raiders approaching"; which, I’m ashamed to say, still never fails to excite me. I remember hearing the sounds of anti-aircraft guns firing, and the ‘crump’ sound of bombs exploding: maybe that’s why the subject of war, in general, and World War 2 in particular, holds an interest for me.

So much so that, since I graduated from university, I've written extensively on the subject. However, I have also spent many years wrestling to come to terms with just how a sophisticated and highly civilised people like the Germans allowed themselves to be dragged down to the depths that they did, during World War Two. I say this because I have visited, spent time in; and researched, both the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps! I've wandered around both camps, which are now museums, and I can testify that no swallows build their nests in the wooden ‘barrack huts’, where so many people died: perhaps some vestige of what happened must still linger there?

Paradoxically, war can also bring out the best in some people, and there are many accounts of truly inspirational stories of heroism and self sacrifice, from both sides: sometimes in the face of overwhelming odds.

It would seem that, as much as we would deny it, there is something deep in the very soul of man that, every few years, causes us to want to go to war! And, when we aren't involved in the actual act of war, we seem to have an almost obscene fascination with reading about the subject.

What else can I tell you about myself? Well, I’ve done lots of other things in life, I've been stuck in the ice at the Arctic circle and had to be rescued by an icebreaker: and I've fished for shark and most other things! I've seen the Aurora Borealis, and the Aurora Australis. I've floated in tropical seas, at night, and marvelled at the beauty of the firmament as I gazed up at the Southern Cross blazing down at me from a black velvet sky! I've been inside the great pyramid, at Giza in Egypt, a truly awe inspiring experience: I've swum with Dolphins and I've jumped out of an aeroplane with nothing more than blind faith and a bag of silk on my back. I've been shot at, shipwrecked and shafted: I've been mugged in the Caribbean; I've spent a night in a Chinese communist jail, and one in a European, so called democratic, jail!

I've seen most places in this world and I met some great people; and, some who were not so great! In 1995, when I was in business and living in Brazil, I got tired of being shot at there, and I returned home to the UK. All my life I've always known that I wanted to be a writer; however, life kept getting in the way! That was until I remembered the words of one of my fellow Scousers, John Winston Lennon: when he said the following: "Life is what happens to you, while you're busy making other plans!"

So, a few years ago, I decided to go back into education, and discovered what I'd always suspected: I did have the flair. I worked hard and I graduated with a Masters Degree, (MA), in screenwriting for film and television! However, undoubtedly, the best thing I've ever done in my life; was eighteen years ago, when I married my Slovak wife, my soul mate: who, incidentally, is thirty eight years my junior. How we came together is a story in itself, she jumped on a bus, in Bratislava Slovakia, and found me here in Liverpool, for which I will be eternally grateful: and, I am now happier and more at peace than at any other time in my life!