If You Can't Take a Joke...You Shouldn't Have Joined

How does a quiet, shy kid, from an unassuming background, grow up yearning for the sea and end up a submariner in some of the most perilous times the waters of the earth have ever known? How does that happen? Maybe it was the droning beat of German bombers and the blazing rattle of anti-aircraft guns that shaped a young boys mind as he sort refuge under a table during World War 11. Maybe it was an imagination fired up as a son heard tales of a dad's survival after twice being sunk by U-boat and twelve days adrift in a lifeboat. Maybe it was a lust for escape from an empty purse, salt-cleaned teeth, free school dinners, shared beds and third hand clothes and the prospect of a lifetime of boredom working at the Motor factory. Maybe it was the exploits and escapades of Sea Captains and eccentric explorers, dreamed of in books, which ignited a passion for maritime adventure. Maybe. But that 'shy kid ' counted the days and hours 'til he was the regulation 15 years and 3 months that would allow him entry to the Royal Navy. That 'shy kid' waited and longed and dreamed of adventure and 'If You Can't Take a Joke ...' is a captivating and informative telling of his life and times in the 'Silent Service'. Hear an inside and underside account of life on and beneath the waves. Hear tales of icy encounters, often with our own ships, in the depths of the cold war. Listen as a submariner regales you with stories of his time spent in the oceans and the bars - the underbelly of the world. Book contains over 40 colour illustrations.