The author details his early childhood in Yorkshire leading to his interest in weight-lifting at the age of sixteen, and subsequent success as Northern Counties light heavy weight champion. He trained with Olympic weight lifters Norman Holroyd and Ronald Walker.
On the outbreak of war he enlisted as a gunner in the Royal Navy, in the DEMS (Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships) and was torpedoed and sunk three times in the Battle of the Atlantic.
After the war he gained a place at Oxford University, where he met eminent writers including Dylan Thomas and Joseph Heller.
