The true story of a Chennai Six prisoner

Surviving Hell

Four years stolen. One story that had to be told. Former Para Nick Dunn’s brutal account of wrongful imprisonment, endurance and the fight to come home.

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True story288 pagesPublished 2020
Cover of Surviving Hell by Nick Dunn
A story of
resilience
& survival
01
This is not fiction

Innocent. Convicted. Determined to survive.

In 2013, Nick Dunn was doing the job he had been hired to do: protecting merchant shipping from piracy. Then his world collapsed.

Nick and five other British former soldiers became known as the Chennai Six. Arrested while serving aboard the anti-piracy vessel MV Seaman Guard Ohio, they were dragged into a legal nightmare in India and imprisoned despite maintaining their innocence.

Behind bars, Nick faced brutal conditions, fear and separation from everyone he loved. His military training gave him discipline, but survival demanded something deeper: the refusal to surrender hope when every promise of freedom seemed to disappear.

“My nightmare was very far from over. It was only just beginning.”Nick Dunn, Surviving Hell
The road through hell

1,500 days of uncertainty.

What began as a routine maritime security operation became a four-year fight against imprisonment, injustice and despair.

Arrested

The crew of the MV Seaman Guard Ohio are detained in India while working on an anti-piracy mission.

Five years

Nick and the others are convicted on weapons charges and sentenced to five years in prison.

Freedom

The appeal court clears all 35 men. After more than four years, Nick can finally return home.

About the author

A soldier’s discipline. A survivor’s voice.

Nick Dunn served in the British Army as a paratrooper before moving into maritime security. As one of the Chennai Six, he found himself at the centre of an international miscarriage of justice that took more than four years of his life.

In Surviving Hell, Nick tells the full story with unflinching honesty: the danger, the injustice, the toll on his family, and the resilience that kept him alive. His experience is a stark reminder of how quickly freedom can disappear — and how fiercely the human spirit can fight to reclaim it.

Listen to Nick’s story
“Truly remarkable”
Damien Lewis · Bestselling author
Surviving Hell paperback by Nick Dunn
Read the full story

A fight for justice that the world should know.

Surviving Hell is the remarkable true story of a man pushed to the edge and the family, friends and campaigners who refused to let him be forgotten.

Nick DunnWith Howard LinskeyPaperbackISBN 9781912624959
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