“Wherever you go, I will go too.” These were the words Susan Travers spoke to General Koenig, the commander of the Free French and the Foreign Legion in North Africa during the Second World War, and the man with whom she was in love.

Her words were about to be tested to the limit. It was early spring 1942, and under the pitiless desert sky, the great siege of Bir Hakeim in Libya was about to begin. Surrounded for fifteen days and nights by Rommel’s Afrika Korps, outnumbered ten to one, pounded by wave after wave of Stuka and Heinkel bombers, Susan, the general and 2,000 men seemed doomed. Then, one moonless night, the French made an audacious bid for freedom. Speeding across the minefields of No-Man’s-Land towards Rommel’s deadly Panzer tanks, her foot hard on the accelerator, Susan led the convoy of men and vehicles away from Bir Hakeim. Hailed as the heroine of the night, in later life she was awarded the Military Medal and the Legion d’honneur.

Tomorrow to be Brave, which was translated into eight languages, became an international best seller and is to be made into a film, is the story of Susan Travers’ extraordinary life, from her childhood in England, her girlhood in inter-war Europe, her decision to join the Free French in search of adventure, her part in the North African campaign and, most remarkable of all, her time after the war in the Foreign Legion as a regular serving officer – the only woman ever to have achieved this. It is a tale of exceptional courage, against overwhelming odds, and a passionate love story played out against the epic landscape of the desert, as Susan prepared to risk everything for the country and for the man she loved.