‘I was born in January 1936, and I learned to count by the bombs dropping on Liverpool. My parents were godly people and I was early taught my duty to God and those around me. Very early in my life I felt that God’s hand was on me, and I married a man whose sense of commitment and honour to God was likewise pre-eminent in his life. During our years on the mission field the whole spectrum of service changed. When we went to Burma in 1960 there were ninety-seven Salvation Army missionaries in South Asia; when I retired from active service in 1997 there were three of us. I wrote much of this book in the beautiful tranquillity of Devon, in the West of England; I completed it in the noise, the hustle, and the bustle of Kolkata, a City that I have grown to love above all others.’