Paul Chester Jerome Brickhill (20 December 1916 – 23 April 1991) was an Australian fighter pilot, prisoner of war, and author who wrote The Great Escape, The Dam Busters, and Reach for the Sky.

That job did not last long, as Peter Finch, who was by then working as a copy boy, was able to convince a news editor at The Sun to interview Brickhill in 1932.

[7] Brickhill was unimpressed by war fever, until the shock of the invasion of France and subsequent withdrawal from Dunkirk, coupled with boredom with his deskbound sub-editor job, induced him to enlist on 6 January 1941 with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

Brickhill undertook advanced training as a fighter pilot in Canada and the United Kingdom before being assigned to No.

92 Squadron RAF, a unit equipped with Spitfires and part of the Desert Air Force in North Africa.

[10] Brickhill became involved with organizing the camp's escape, initially as a lookout or "stooge", before volunteering to work as a digger on the "Tom" tunnel.

[12] Following the announcement of the murder of the escapees who had been recaptured following the Great Escape, Brickhill became determined to document the event.

As a result, while awaiting for sufficient stocks of paper to be obtained to print the book, Brickhill was able to sell a condensed version of his chapter on the Great Escape to several newspapers in Australia.

[18] At the same time Brickhill had been approached by John Pudney, who had recently joined London based publisher Evans Brothers as an editor, with a proposal to write a book on the Stalag Luft III mass escape.

[19] Once in England, Brickhill asked the RAF about the status of the proposed history of 617 Squadron, offering his services if they were still required.

[22][23] Following the success of The Dam Busters, Robert Clark the head of production at Associated British Picture Corporation approached Brickhill about acquiring the screen rights to the book.

After reading The Dam Busters, Battle of Britain ace Douglas Bader approached Brickhill in 1951 about collaborating on his biography.

However Brickhill felt guilty about not signing with John Pudney and Evans Brothers, who had previously been so supportive of him.

[30] Brickhill spent the rest of his life working on unfinished film screenplays, novels and biographies, but was unable to repeat his successes of 1949 to 1954.

[1][32] After meeting on a ship from Australia to England in 1949, the 33-year-old Brickhill married 21-year-old Margot Slater, also an Australian, in St. Michael's Church, Chester Square, Pimlico on 22 April 1950.

Deadline became an episode of the Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre anthology series titled War of Nerves that was first broadcast on 5 January 1964.