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returned to England in the mid-1950s and was a successful author.This biography contains new material and previously unpublished work by Baines and it coincides with the posthumous publication of the account of his service with the Chindits, Chindit Affair: A Memoir of the War in Burma.