A riotous, light hearted novel, with good old British humour at its best and laugh out loud moments from the word go. The story is centred around William Elliott and his best mate Alexander Simon, ex-soldiers from the 1st Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. It is set in the Home Counties, the urban town of Basingstoke where the pair settled after the Second World War, along with their wives, Bridget and Sally. This is where the trouble really started.
Will, tells his own story, but inevitably there are some darker moments, in having suffered the worst during the war compared to his more robust friend. Both were incarcerated inside a Japanese POW camp, at Osaka Bay, on mainland Japan. The daily hardships in the camp and the witness to such heinous atrocities at the hands of the vindictive camp commandant, Ludwig van Kamikaze, had certainly taken its toll.
The commandant, ludicrously so-named by his doting Japanese mother, was born into a completely different world and culture. The family name of 'Kamikaze' had serious connotations, only to those who were unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of a volatile projectile. Otherwise, it was a perfectly respectable name in Japan, with undertones of 'divine' and 'wind' both occurring within the same sentence.
Having a particular penchant for classical music, Mother Kamikaze instructed the midwife to play the famous composer's 5th Symphony at full volume, whilst in the final stage of labour. The name 'Ludwig van', therefore, seemed to have stuck. It appeared to be the perfect appellation for Junior Kamikaze, who was a potential budding samurai soldier and destined for lofty heights in the Japanese military.
However, all is not plain-sailing. Will, suffers repeated flash backs with accompanying hallucinations. One such ridiculous example, was Ludwig van Kamikaze, appearing at his bed-side wearing quite bizarrely a voluminous dress, just as Will had decided to make love to his wife.
There are many hidden challenges along the way with shadowy, unforeseen events seemingly to thwart our hero, with plenty of hilarious misunderstandings, misconceptions and crossed-wires.
Will, embraces all the tragic events in his life with his usual caustic sense of humour and his own unique perspective on life. There are lots of surprises in store, taking the reader through the trials and tribulations of post-traumatic stress disorder and the alternative therapies on offer in late 1960's, Britain.
If you haven't laughed out loud by the end of page one, then it's time to seek a therapist!