David Howarth. London (UK), 1912 Chichester (UK), 1991. He was a British naval officer, shipbuilder, historian and writer. After graduating from Cambridge University, he worked as a war correspondent for BBC Radio at the beginning of World War II. He joined the Navy after the fall of France and served in the Directorate of Special Operations (DOE), where he helped establish the Shetland Bus, a Norwegian-manned operation that ran a clandestine route between the Shetland Islands and Norway. Howarth was second in command at the naval base in Shetland. During World War II he led a complex spy ring, which later became the inspiration for several of his books, such as The Shetland Bus, his first hit, or We Die Alone. For his contributions to espionage operations against the German occupation of Norway, Howarth received the Freedom Cross from King Haakon VII and was appointed by the Norwegian king as a First Class Knight of the Order of Saint Olaf. After the war was over, he wrote more than twenty books on naval and military history, among which we die alone. His storytelling style is gripping: you can almost hear the howl of the arctic wind, be blinded by snow, and feel your limbs freeze. As vivid as the reflection of the indefatigable Jan Baalsrud's personal bravery is the devastating impact of war on a handful of remote Norwegian fishing villages.