In ‘Is That Really True, Sir?’, the artist, barrister, schoolmaster, musician, journalist and explorer Michael Aubrey negotiates a succession of improbable events and narrow escapes. Starting with a vivid account of his wartime childhood, Aubrey shares the joys, hazards, surprises and often hilarious disasters of his colourful experiences in many countries, encountering a range of unusual people along the way. With a comic lightness of touch, he revels in life’s absurdities at the same time as celebrating the beauty and harmony of the various worlds which he has inhabited.

The memoir is lavishly illustrated, including over eighty of the author’s vibrant watercolours. His acute eye for the ridiculous, keen observation of character, lyrical accounts of unfamiliar places and illuminating insights make this a joyous book, one to lift the spirits even on the dullest of days.