Last year I went to India to trace the steps of my dad who was stationed over there in Mumbai (Bombay), Calcutta and Chittagong and Darjeeling during the war. He died a few years ago and we found his war dairies for 1939, 40,41,42,43 and 45. Sadly his 1944 diary was missing, but other than that, he had made an entry EVERY single day without exception of his time over there.

I have read every page and it is truely the most wonderful book I have ever read (not from a 'content' point of view for anyone else) but for me as his son reading all about the things we never got chance to talk about in his younger years as a 21 year old RAF radio operator, stationed on the Burmese border.

Fascinating to think his 21st birthday was spent on a train journey from Mumbai to Calcutta, terrified at the thought of confronting an enemy, when my 21st birthday celebration's only concern, was wondering how to have my steak cooked at a local restaurant ! Reading an entry he wrote at the age of 22 saying ......" I often wonder whether I will ever see my Mother and Father again....." was very emotional as you can imagine - luckily , he did.

The trip was a real life changing experience- the highlight being tracking down the owner of a camera shop in Calcutta where my dad took many of his photos to be developed. I met and spoke to the (then very old ) owner of the camera shop, who said that he would have almost certainly spoken to and served my dad , as he working in that same shop helping his father, at the age of 11 !

Quite bizarrre to be stood in that same shop a generation on, so far away, in such different circumstances, handing the old man a receipt my father had placed in his diary, with this man's own father's signature on it and some photograph negatives that they would have developed for him so long ago.

I often wondered what had happened to that missing diary - until to my delight , last Sunday I stumbled by chance upon it, in an old box of junk in my mother's garage, whilst looking for a screwdriver to do a job for her -excellent!

Well, I'm so far I'm up to April 1944.....I won't share the entries with you, suffice to say, the war was starting to take it's toll on my dad by now and there are some good days for him, but many more bad days.

I'm loving every last word I read with a mixture delight and sadness with each day. Every day I read I know that it is one day nearer to the last time my dad will 'talk' to me again and I do not relish reading that very last entry on 31st December 1944 - what will it hold in store ?

The trip to India was amazing. For those of you who have not been  and have a strong stomach for all that does not sit well with 'life without home comforts' ...I highly recommend a visit.