THE BURNEY BROTHERS of Hay are of historic importance. Christopher parachuted into France in 1942, was captured, tortured by the Gestapo, spent 18 months in solitary confinement, and then 15 months in Buchenwald Concentration Camp. His books, Solitary Confinement and Dungeon Democracy, became classics of wartime literature, now largely forgotten. This book rediscovers them, and tells the story of a heroic life blighted by post-traumatic stress disorder. Roger was a scholar and pacifist turned sailor who drowned in the mysterious sinking of the controversial Free French vessel Surcouf. It was the worst submarine disaster of WW2, but what caused it? At last this book offers an answer. Roger’s friend, Benjamin Britten, dedicated the War Requiem to him twenty years later.