Michal Giedroyc was born in Poland in 1929. In 1939, when Germany and the USSR took over the country, the father, who was a lawyer and prominent politician, was imprisoned, and the mother, sisters and Michal were deported. They lived in Siberia, then in Iran, Palestine, Lebanon, and at the end of the war they ended up in Great Britain. In his memoirs, Giedroyc talks about how quickly he had to grow up. There are many dramatic and even tragic moments in his story, but it is all permeated with amazing dignity and optimism.