This memoir explores the beginnings of a long and eventful life tracing inner and outer journeys that began in England on April Fools Day 1937. As a babe in her mothers arms Gillian was soon travelling on the Orient Express to Istanbul just before the outbreak of World War II. Two happy years growing up in Istanbul were followed by a series of eventful and dangerous wartime journeys. With just her mother a very young Gillian travelled through Palestine Egypt South Africa and the North and South