On this day, 17th September 1959, I caught the train from Bridgwater, via Bristol and Shrewsbury to Oswestry, and by the evening I was Gunner Tolson, J 23……- I won’t give the whole number – I still use it! And so my Army national service began.

And so it was for Archie Middlebrook, the protagonist of my novel, Requiem for Private Hughes in 1953, but he was posted to Malaya. I served in Germany at an uneventful time, until the first bricks of the Berlin Wall were laid as I left Germany and the Army.

A happy coincidence that my novel is now available on Amazon both as an e-book and a paperback. Oh, perhaps I should  classify it as 15+. Enjoy.