A Book for 2025

I shared the following post on LinkedIn on the last day of 2024 and was surprised by the strength of response - not the number of 'Likes' (about 100 and counting) but the credentials of those doing the 'liking'. Amongst them, winners of the following: 1 Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, (second only to the Victoria Cross for gallantry), Distinguished Service Cross & Bar (Aus), 3 Military Crosses, 1 CBE, 2 OBEs and 5 MBEs! Wow. I salute you all. This was my note:

2025 A year full of opportunity and uncertainty

Freddie Spencer Chapman was a school teacher who learnt to live with uncertainty from the outset. His mother died shortly after his birth, his father at the Battle of the Somme when he was only nine. He became a great adventurer, mountaineer and winner of Polar and Mungo Park Medals before teaching at Gordonstoun School where Prince Philip was one of his pupils. During WWII he fought a guerrilla campaign behind Japanese lines for 3 years and this book is his wartime memoire. Heroics aside, his choice of book title 'The Jungle is Neutral' relates to the fact that the British Army of the 1940s regarded the jungle as an impenetrable green hell, whilst the Japanese had comfortably adapted their style of warfare to the terrain. His point was that circumstances did not automatically convey an advantage to one side or the other, it was largely a matter of mind set. As we enter a new year full of both opportunity and uncertainty, Freddie's mixture of calm objectivity, adaptability and old-fashioned courage may be just what's needed.