Although he took his soldiering - and especially his soldiers - seriously enough, an inheritance when the author came of age in 1934 enabled him to channel his surplus energy and enthusiasm into other fields; touring in exciting cars in Europe and America, racing his single-seater J4 MG at Brooklands and flying his Miles Whitney Straight monoplane as far afield as Egypt, Singapore & Bali. Though these off-duty activities form the body of the book, soldiering with tthe Manchester Regiment is not omitted. The central chapter covers the author's service in Palestine during the 1938 'Troubles' when he commanded one of Orde Wingate's Jewish Special Night Squads - the SNS of Jewish folklore - for the leadership of which he was awarded the Military Cross and fifty years later the 'medal for 'Heroic Contributions to the People of Israel'.