finally going to Oflag 79. His fellow escapee Hannebicque survived the war and later became a writer and photographer. Arising out of his escape plans, Baker said he and his colleagues were court-martialed for forging leave passes. The Gestapo and the prosecution initially asked for the death penalty, but later altered it to six weeks in a punishment camp. They were actually sentenced to twenty-eight days' solitary confinement, of which twenty-five days were deducted because they had only previously had a sentence of ten days. During the spring of 1945, rations ran short in the camp as the Allied armies moved closer, and the camp was liberated on 12 April 1945 by the US Ninth Army. Baker gained permission to make his own way home and drove in a requisitioned Mercedes to Venlo, from where he flew to Ghent and then back to London. He weighed 7 stone 2 lbs when he returned to England. On 2 August 1945, Captain Peter Baker (148257) of the Intelligence Corps, Staplehurst, Kent was awarded the Military Cross in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in North-West Europe. Post-war As early as 1940 Baker had found himself in charge of editing a broadsheet of poems, including some he had written himself. The collection was known as the Resurgam Poets. Baker later adopted the pseudonym Colin Strang to edit two anthologies and write poetry reviews for newspapers and magazines, until he was posted to Africa. In early 1944, while he was in Britain, Baker's poem sequence "The Land of Prester John" was published, to what he thought was a poor critical reception. After the war Baker, became a publisher with financial backing from his father; the company he founded, Falcon Press, was named after the armoured car which Baker had used during the war. As wartime paper rationing was continuing and Falcon Press was a newcomer without a large quota, he printed books in several foreign countries instead. The business was initially successful, enabling Baker to build up a "minor business empire" including four publishing companies, printing works, a wine merchants and a whisky distillery, aircraft research company, and a property business. Muriel Spark worked for Falcon Press from 1951. When Falcon Press ran into debt, Baker and Robert Maxwell (then making his name as a leading British publisher) planned to merge their respective publishing businesses; however the plans fell through. Maxwell eventually bought the