It is only with hindsight that we are most able to appreciate our past. Richard Oxby's autobiography is not just a retelling of his life but an understanding of it - beginning in rural Somerset and ending in the beautiful Italian countryside, taking many detours along the way. Oxby leads us through his life as the son of a clergyman and his experiences in the 1920s and 1930s as a shy but intelligent child. He goes on to Oxford and then the Navy in the Second World War, becomes a successful ad-man in Paris, and eventually ends up in a charming village in the Italian countryside in a house called La Vigna.

With grace, humour and compassion, Oxby takes us through his self-proclaimed 'small' life to show us how important the individual experience is - how a religious upbringing can lead to disillusionment, the effects of war on a small rural community, and the joy and frustration of living a life abroad in Paris in an intellectual, socialist-leaning circle while also raising four children.

A Search for Survival illuminates not just one man's life but, by extension, the effect of world events on all of us.