Memoirs of a hero - our very own Dan Dare

Back in the 1940s Emsworth man Tony Beasley really was the little boy who ran away to sea. Beneath The Restless Wave – Memoirs Of A Cold War Submariner (Casemate Publishers, £20, available from book shops and online) tells his story.

Co-author Edward Couzens-Lake, of Barnham, said: “Tony (86) tells, in his own words, some of the adventures he had during the time he was serving with the Royal Navy.

“Primarily this is a book about a sailor, the everyday matelot who made up the strong backbone of the servicemen who were, as Tony witnessed for himself, held in very high esteem by Lord Louis Mountbatten, a former First Sea Lord.

“His very earliest memories relate to his time as a boy sailor, a time a time when the discipline meted out might mean six harsh strokes of the cane and where young boys were expected to climb to the very top of a mast, some 185 feet above a ship’s deck and with no safety equipment issued, simply to prove themselves to their superiors.