sold over one million copies over 50 years. 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. The company's production manager was of the opinion that there were too many people and raids involved, and that they would not be able to film the book in its entirety. As a result, he requested that Brickhill provide a condensed film treatment. Brickhill agreed to do it without payment, in the hope of selling the screen rights. To assist, Clark teamed him up with Walter Mycroft who was the company's Director of Production. Brickhill decided to concentrate the film treatment on Operation Chastise, and ignore the later raids. Associated agreed with Brickhill on the film rights in December 1952 for what is believed to have been £5,000. The subsequent film was released in 1954 as The Dam Busters. Reach for the Sky After reading The Dam Busters, Battle of Britain ace Douglas Bader approached Brickhill in 1951 about collaborating on his biography. Brickhill agreed to undertake the project. After approaching several publishers about the proposed biography Brickhill's agent found that William Collins and Sons were prepared to offer the best terms, leading Brickhill to sign with them. However Brickhill felt guilty about not signing with John Pudney and Evans Brothers, who had previously been so supportive of him. He consequently offered to write an anthology of escape stories for them, which they eventually published as Escape – Or Die. The resulting biography of Bader was published in 1954 as Reach for the Sky. In the first few months alone, 172,000 copies were sold. The initial print run of 300,000 quickly sold out, as the biography became the biggest-selling hardback in post-war Britain. The book was subsequently adapted for the screen and released in 1956 as a feature film. Starring Kenneth More as Bader, it topped the box office in Britain that year. Later life Brickhill spent the rest of his life working on several unfinished film screenplays, novels and biographies, but was never able to repeat his successes of 1949 to 1954. In 1969 he returned to live permanently in Australia. Brickhill died in Sydney, New South Wales on 23 April 1991 aged 74. See also John Ramsland's update. Personal life After first meeting her while travelling by ship from Australia to England