Book of hero dad never met

Janet lived in Udimore for thirty years. With husband Steve they founded and ran the Penny Royal in Rye for a quarter of a century.

Janet was inspired to put pen to paper when she found the WWII diaries begun by a working class, south London boy aged 18.

The young man was to become Janet’s father, Jim, but she knew him only as a photograph on the mantelpiece. Janet said: “The book follows Jim through his diaries, discovers who he was, learns about his deeply held beliefs and traces the course of a passionate love affair and what happened, the day before I was born, to prevent me knowing the hero on the mantelpiece.”

The book is published by Silverwood Books at £9.99.