Walter Fast was born in Vienna not long after the First World War and as a child he lived through the political turmoil of Central Europe, which culminated with Hitler's annexation of Austria. As was common at the time, his parents came from large families, so he had 25 aunts and uncles, with their children as cousins.

The families and his life were decimated by the Nazi occupation and he was first exiled alone to England at the age of fifteen, then deported to Australia, before being allowed to return and join the British Army, never again seeing his mother and more than half of...