The author is perhaps best known as a war reporter, campaigner and former Independent MP. This book is almost of another life. A life that is alien to those born after 1960, if they have even heard of it, but a life that was known to millions of Britons as they spent their compulsory period in National Service. A fascinating tale that is based on letters the author wrote home to his family during his National Service with the Suffolk Regiment in the 1950s.