PMJ pre-empts ‘extraordinary’ first-hand account of the war in Ukraine

Penguin Michael Joseph (PMJ) has acquired Live. Fight. Survive., an “extraordinary” first-hand account of the war in Ukraine by former British Army Soldier Shaun Pinner.

Publishing director Rowland White pre-empted world rights from Rory Scarfe at The Blair Partnership. Live. Fight. Survive. will be published in autumn 2023.

The publisher says: “After serving nine years in the Royal Anglian Regiment, Pinner moved to Mariupol to be with his Ukrainian wife and joined his adopted country’s Marines. Five years later, Pinner and the soldiers he led were on the frontline when Russia attacked, slowing down the enemy’s devastating advance before joining the heroic last-stand defence of the Mariupol steel works.

“Captured, tortured, imprisoned and sentenced to death in an ordeal that lasted many months, Shaun tells a story that is both an unputdownable record of the fierceness of the fighting and a powerful testament to the strength of the human spirit. Already described as the Bravo Two Zero of Ukraine, Live. Fight. Survive. looks set to be the first essential book to come out of the war in Ukraine.”

Pinner said: “I am very pleased to be working with Rowland and a team at Penguin Michael Joseph that has a track record of working with some of the world’s most popular authors. I want to also thank everybody else involved in helping me tell my story of what it was like fighting at ground level in what was undoubtedly one of the bloodiest battles since the Second World War.

“The book will highlight not only my subsequent capture and captivity, but also the infectious and brave Ukrainian spirit and will to fight. I witnessed heroism that went beyond anything I had ever seen and watched a bond develop between prisoners of war which led to our subsequent fight back from inside a Donetsk jail. My thanks to Rory Scarfe at Blair Partnership, my former Commanding Officer, Colonel Richard Kemp, and to Matt Allen, who all helped convince me that this story needed to be told.”

White commented: “The world held its breath as Putin’s forces tried to break the brave Ukrainian defence of Mariupol with overwhelming force. Short of food, fuel and ammunition, the defenders’ heroic resistance was the stuff of legend, completely upending global expectations about how the war might unfold. This is the first inside account of a battle that’s been compared by Ben Macintyre in the Times to the Alamo and Dunkirk. Eventually captured during the breakout from the steel works, Shaun’s defiance in the face of the torture and brutal treatment that then followed is even more remarkable. This is an utterly compelling war story.”