Events have a way of shaping a man's life, and in chronicling them I have the hope, forlorn though it may be, that I might be better understood and even forgiven by those whose patience I must have tried so often. Because this book covers my earlier years and because my age fated me to serve throughout the second world war, this means some of these events took place in conflict. It is not the intention to dwell on the brutal aspects of war, but to cover the bizarre, and often downright absurd that plagued my life from birth.