Passage

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.

Paul Redgrave was born in Bradford in 1920, and fought in the Battle of the Atlantic during the war. After the war he went to Oxford University where he read English. In 1951 he moved to Plymouth, taking up a post as a teacher. He also wrote poems and short stories and was the author of a novel on the Battle of the Atlantic. He gained a black belt in judo and was the author of a manual of self defence for women, in conjunction with Carolyn Seaward, Miss UK and runner up for Miss World. He lived in Yelverton on the southern edge of Dartmoor, where he would enjoy walking and cycling, and the ambiance of the local village pubs.