This book will be of interest to most people with a forces background (especially RAF), including the families who accompanied them on various postings abroad. The writer was a colleague and personal friend of my father and his time in Hong Kong and Singapore evoked many memories, happy and otherwise. Working class men in 1950s HK were a long way from home with no skype or email to keep in quick touch with their families. Even phones were difficult. Consequently, the touching tale of Brummie's mother's bread and butter pudding, arriving in HK after several weeks' travel by ship, reminded me of my own family food parcels. The techie details would probably have earned the author some roubles during the Cold War years, which brings me to the rather embittered tone of the final chapter. My "civilian" friends at the time generally did not believe the atmosphere of Big Brother control that affected even forces' children. If you are non-forces yourself, or if the name "Doug Brittain" means nothing to you, you might find Chris Boyd's suspicions that his phone was tapped, even after he left the service, simply for having a German wife and appearing to have more worldly goods than his salary would justify, hard to believe. You might dismiss his suspicions as paranoia. I don't - as a very trivial example, my father's concern for his career meant he banned me (aged 14) from writing to the Chinese Legation to demand my free copy of Chairman Mao's little red book. Another forces friend was advised never to tell her schoolfriends that her father was in Signals - "just say RAF, no more". Finally, Chris Boyd's description of how he received his BEM, which should have been a matter of pride, shows the RAF of the Cold War years in a very poor light indeed.

 

3. 5.0 out of 5 starsBy David Topham on 27 Dec. 2015