Review this Book

0 reviews (below)

Ronald Hopper has had a long life. A diverse life. An unexpected life. Looking back across eight decades he seeks out patterns and clues, causes and effects to help explain how he got from there to here...intact and relatively unscathed! En route he discovers a young boy familiar, yet distant orphaned at the age of eight and parcelled off from his beloved London home to an unknown fate in the north of England. Here, in what should be the safety and comfort of a new familial home, he encounters a cold detachment, which soon grows into cruelty and physical abuse. After years of torment at the hands of his uncle, the teenage boy finally escapes to pursue his own destiny, running away to sea as a 15-year-old boy seaman in the Merchant Navy, followed by a five-year stint in the Royal Marines during World War Two. Perfectly adept at changing trajectory on the most speculative of whims, his twilight years take a sudden about turn as United Nations field service beckons, taking him from Thailand to Nepal, from Vietnam to Mauritius over a 17-year period. Filled with anecdote and incident, philosophical reflection and humorous reverie, this strikingly unique autobiography is one man's chronicle of a century of change.

Stock: In Stock, Delivery: Standard 2-3 Days (inc BFPO), £2.65

Click here to view associated books

Return to Previous Page