The Compass of Naivety

In the spring of 1959 Clive Chabrier set off to go jiving at the Aldershot Palais. A spur of the moment decision changed his direction that fateful evening and within 36 hours he was unwittingly imprisoned in the menacing confines of a Foreign Legion base. Weeks later, with the silent but real threat of unknown consequences if he refused, Clive ceased to be a prisoner and reluctantly became a legion recruit. What followed was a long, harsh and brutal training under NCOs of the now disbanded 1er REP where he earned his wings as a Legion paratrooper in war-torn Algeria.Determined to escape, Clive took many perilous steps towards freedom, including a fascinating and nail-biting voyage across the world as a stowaway on a ship whose English captain was obsessed with handing him back to the French. At an opportune moment Clive fled the ship in Australia where his adventures as a fugitive in the wild North West give a wonderful flavour of an era and concludes his five year survival journey - all of which makes this book an immediately compelling, fast page-turner.