Neil Begley was born in China and grew up there with his Australian parents. This is a vivid account of his childhood in the bustling cities of Peking, Shanghai and Tientsin lived against the backdrop of the war between Japan and China that raged in China from 1937. In December 1941 when he was only nine years old, Neil became a captive of the occupying Japanese forces. He and his family spent two and a half years in a Japanese prison camp. Rich in the detail of the various cultures in which the author was raised, this story is one of endurance, optimism and survival as seen through the eyes of a child.