Laurens van der Post was born in Africa in 1906. Most of his adult life was spent his time divided between Africa and England. His professions of writer and farmer were interrupted by ten years in the army, behind enemy lines in Abyssinia, the Western Desert and the Far East where he was taken prisoner by the Japanese while commanding a small guerrilla unit. He went straight from prison back to active service in Java. He was awarded the CBE for his services in the field.
""""Yet Being Someone Other"" is undoubtedly the most unusual and unplaceable of all the dozen or more books Sir Laurens has written. Like most of them it is heavily autobiographical; but as one would expect from Sir Laurens, it is also much more than that - a kind of prolonged meditation on the part played in his life and that of the post-Renaissance modern world by ships and the sea."" - Christopher Booker, ""The Times"" """"Yet Being Someone Other is undoubtedly the most unusual and unplaceable of all the dozen or more books Sir Laurens has written. Like most of them it is heavily autobiographical; but as one would expect from Sir Laurens, it is also much more than that - a kind of prolonged meditation on the part played in his life and that of the post-Renaissance modern world by ships and the sea."" - Christopher Booker, ""The Times