Blind to Misfortune by Bill Griffiths
Bill Griffiths lost both hands and both eyes when he was a prisoner of the Japanese in Java in 1942.This book tells the story of how he overcame these two shattering handicaps, either one of which might have qualified him to spend the rest of his life quietly in a home for the disabled. But Bill had no intention of allowing himself to become an object of pity and it was not long after his return to civilian life that he began to make it clear that, even if he had no hands and no eyes, he still had his own two feet and he certainly intended to stand on them. Inevitably life has not been without its ups and downs, and he certainly Bill could not have got where he has without the care and devotion of Alice, his wife. Their story is one of remarkable courage, told with no trace of bitterness and with a generous helping of laughter. It is a measure of the man that Bill can end his story with the words, I've been lucky
William Griffiths spent the majority of his working life in the Royal Navy, from the North Atlantic through the South Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and on to the Far East and the Pacific, including the terrifying Russian Convoys. He served on a variety of ships, including landing craft, destroyers, frigates, corvettes, and aircraft carriers, from the beaches of North Africa through Messina, Salerno, Anzo, and D-Day Normandy. So, what's the point? He 'came up through the hawse-hole' to become an officer during peacetime, which indicates he was commissioned from the lower deck. The hawse-hole is a hole in a ship's bows through which the anchor cable moves as it ascends and descends.
Since leaving the workforce, he has traveled extensively, returning to many of the locations where the navy gained some of its hard-won honors. Otherwise, he's preoccupied with authorship, claiming that he'll write more novels after this one if he can find a publisher. He is a confirmed European, with a second house in France and a daughter who aspires to be a full-time artist. He is married and has a daughter who aspires to be a full-time artist when he is not in France.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780850526028 |
| ISBN 10 | 0850526027 |
| Title | Blind to Misfortune |
| Author | Bill Griffiths |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Pen & Sword Books Ltd |
| Year published | 1989-03-01 |
| Number of pages | 196 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |