A. J. (Alfred John) Evans

Born on May 1, 1889, Alfred John Evans was an English sportsman, soldier, aviator, and writer. He played first-class cricket for Oxford University, Hampshire, and Kent, and also appeared once for England in the 1921 Ashes series. During the First World War he served with the Royal Flying Corps, was captured by German forces, and later became known for his remarkable escape attempts.

Those wartime experiences led to The Escaping Club (1921), the book he is most remembered for today. It recounts his time as a prisoner of war and his efforts to break free, and it has long been admired as a vivid, suspenseful firsthand memoir rather than a fictional adventure.

Evans died on September 18, 1960. Although he had an accomplished life in sport, his reputation as an author rests chiefly on the clear-eyed storytelling of The Escaping Club, which helped preserve one of the most unusual personal accounts to come out of the First World War.