Saffron's Trials

Only war could produce a story as bizarre as this - The two very different characters of Sergeant Alan Saffron, an ex-aircrew NCO whose one wish is to get back into action, and Corporal Ken Bickers, a self-styled Communist but in fact simply a scrounger, have been drawn together by war. It soon becomes apparent that the hilarious relationship this produces is as turbulent as the war itself.Following a wait in Sri Lanka while their ship is being repaired, the draft of misfits and criminals are shipped to a transit camp in Bombay where the postings begin. The men with criminal records are sent to particularly unpleasant sectors of the Far Eastern war and Bickers, a perpetual pessimist, is certain that he and Saffron will share the same fate.When they are sent up to the North West Frontier to open a gas warfare school, Bickers is relieved - until he discovers that the two worst members of the draft, who have a particular reason for disliking himself and Saffron, are posted with them...Frederick E. Smith (1919-2012) joined the R.A.F. in 1939 as a wireless operator/air gunner and commenced service in early 1940, serving in Britain, Africa and finally the Far East. At the end of the war he married and worked for several years in South Africa before returning to England to fulfill his life-long ambition to write. Two years later, his first play was produced and his first novel published. Since then, he wrote over forty novels, about eighty short stories and two plays. Two novels, 633 Squadron and The Devil Doll, were made into films.