The book shows how a British naval officer, confined during the Second World War as a Prisoner of War in Hong Kong under Japanese Occupation, engaged his mind during those three and a half years. There are talks he gave to other POWs, drawings and essays. Transcripts from his diary for the year immediately before the Fall of Hong Kong provide fascinating insights, as do correspondence with family and friends and official documents. Photographs and narratives relating to his previous time with the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and descriptions from the time of the Japanese occupation of Kiukiang on the Chinese Mainland provide unusual first-hand information.