Maurice D. Sassoon was born in Rangoon, Burma. After a couple of narrow escapes from death he fled when he was a young man to India, with his family, one step ahead of the Japanese occupying forces. Possessed with a flare for writing he first joined a literary club, then later edited a magazine dedicated to the publication of poetry and short stories by unknown yet talented writers. (This is a re-issue of the novel, which was first published in 1978.)