John, the subject of this gripping and at times deeply moving tale, has had a full and very varied life, full of both triumph and tragedy. Joining the Royal Navy shortly before the Second World War, he packed enough in those few years to fill a lifetime. No sooner is his ship sunk in the Mediterranean than we find him under attack in the Far East, and then enduring a grim spell in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp.

It is a life full of ups and downs, and towards the end full of personal tragedy too, with his son dying in distressing circumstances - a sad story, movingly told.