Man Overboard

250 pages. In Man Overboard, Tim Binding tells the story of English war hero Commander C rabb, who disappeared in 1956 amid rumours of his capture by the USSR. Imaginati ve and funny, this novel is an exploration of Englishness.Industrious, resil ient, fond of his drink, socially awkward and physically fearless, Commander Lio nel 'Buster' Crabb was an Englishman who put defence of King and country above a ll else. In Gibraltar, and later Palestine and Italy, his feats of underwater da ring made him the navy's greatest frogman and a legend of the Second World War.But Crabb's private life was both a struggle to achieve human intimacy and a struggle to find his place in post-war Britain. How could someone whose identity was forged in war, who was the friend of government moles and double agents, re concile himself to the rewards of an ordinary life? When in April 1956, during a visit to Britain by First Secretary Khrushchev, Commander Crabb disappeared, wa s it by accident or by design.