This is a unique story of a small boy's survival in Japanese concentration camps during the Second World War and his subsequent struggles to conform to a new life in post-war England. Thanks to the strength of character and common sense of Nadia, his Russian mother, Ivan and his sister survive three and a half years of internment. At the end of the war, the relief from the misery of the concentration camps in Java does nothing to restore an already shaky marriage. Following which his mother and Dutch father are granted a quick divorce. Nadia meets an English soldier- a widower, who was sent with his regiment to help repatriate the ex-internees. They decide to get married and embark on a new life in rural Lincolnshire to live with her new parents-in-law and his two sons. Ivan Kruys vividly describes how, he at the age of 8, has to grapple with a new language and culture and start school in a rural environment at a time when foreigners are virtually unknown. He hates being foreign but in the end he manages to find his identity. Meanwhile, his mother's stubborn determination manages to pull the family out of its working - class environment, but not without conflicts. The story covers a variety of both tragic and humorous incidents.
