In this extraordinary biographical work, Richard Teuchmann retraces his father, Lolek's footsteps from an idyllic boyhood in rural Poland through the hands of brutal Russian captors finally arriving at unexpected settlement in England. Against the background of World War II, Teuchmann relives the loftiest heights of battles miraculously won atop gargantuan tanks and the depths of lows that include near starvation and loss all while fighting for the hope of a Free Poland. Teuchmann's vivid depictions of life in the squalor of Siberian detention, the passing pleasures of Italian wines and the exotic nightlife of Cairo belie the much deeper traumas of war on communities and the individuals that make them. At once an entertaining and light-hearted account of boyish drunken adventure, war stories and the occasional sexual conquest, this is also a sober reckoning of the uncanny parallels to Russia's war against Ukraine today.