It is 1918, and London is gathering in its dead. For undertaker Henry Speake, laying to rest the bodies of those sent home from the Front has become a familiar duty. But what he is seeing now, as influenza claims its victims, is something different.
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...