In 1939, at the age of six and just before the outbreak of World War Two, the author was uprooted from the Sussex countryside and tossed into the political and military cauldron of South East Asia to face the turmoil of wartime in the Philippines - first on the run in the jungle from the invading Japanese, then in an internment camp where, still a child, he came close to death. His mind further broadened by evacuation to the USA, he then fought a more personal battle for survival, this time against the stifling educational conventions of post-war Britain. Here, in this engrossing true-life account, Charles Land-Reeves unfolds a fascinating story of childhood innocence corrupted by and then triumphing over an uncompromising and often brutal reality. This second edition of a book first published in 1996 has been revised and corrected for its new appearance.