‘Untold Stories’, Alan Bennett’s first major collection of prose since his bestselling ‘Writing Home’, brings together the finest and funniest of his writing over the last ten years.
Arctic explorer, survival expert and naturalist Freddy Spencer Chapman was trapped behind enemy lines when the Japanese overran Malaya in 1942. His response was to begin a commando campaign of such lethal effectiveness that the Japanese deployed an entire regiment against him, hunting for him as they did for no other. He was wounded, and racked by tropical disease. His companions were killed, or captured...