From the jacket cover:

Bernard Fergusson was a professional soldier for nearly thirty years. Commissioned into the Black Watch in 1931, he served for two years as ADC to the future Field-Marshal Lord Wavell, thus beginning a close friendship which lasted until the latter's death. During the war he served in the Middle East, India and Burma, commanding first a column and then a brigade in the two expeditions led by Wingate behind the Japanese lines.



After the war he served in Palestine, before commanding his Regiment, doing a spell at SHAPE, participating in the Suez operation of 1956, commanding two brigades in succession and retiring in 1958. From 1962 to 1967 he was Governor-General of New Zealand, like his father and both his grandfathers before him, and from 1972 to 1976 Chairman of the British Council. In 1972 he was created Lord Ballantrae of Auchairne and the Bay of Islands, and in 1974 became a Knight of the Thistle.



He has written many books, including Beyond the Chindwin and The Wild Green Earth, dealing with his years in Burma; and biographies of Wavell and of Rupert of the Rhine. His autobiographical Trumpet in the Hall did for his career as a soldier what Travel Warrant does for his voyaging life. His most recent book, Hubble Bubble, is a volume of light verse, published in 1978.