Frank Baines : A Life Beyond the Sea

Frank Baines (1915-1987): Able Seaman, Chindit Officer, Hindu monk, businessman, journalist, writer, film extra, prisoner, long-distance cyclist--there were many sides to Frank Baines. Banished from a childhood paradise in Cornwall following the death of his father, the distinguished architect Sir Frank Baines, Frank ran away to sea in a Finnish grain ship and roamed the world before ending up as a Chindit in General Orde Wingate's guerrilla army. After the war he settled in a Hindu monastery in the Himalayan foothills, but, restless as ever, he moved to steamy Calcutta. Here he became a businessman, repairing tea chests, and embarked on his writing career. Frank returned to England in the mid-1950s and was a successful author. This biography contains new material and previously unpublished work by Baines and it coincides with the posthumous publication of the account of his service with the Chindits, Chindit Affair: A Memoir of the War in Burma .