The Weekend Trippers, which is being launched at the Royal Green Jackets Museum in Winchester on Saturday the 29th October 2011 at 10.30am. Field Marshal Lord Bramall has written the Foreword for the book.

The Weekend Trippers tells the true story of my father, ‘Ted’ Taylor of 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade. Ted was sent to France on 23rd May 1940 as part of Calais Force. Outnumbered by at least three to one they held out for 4 days against the might of the 10th Panzer Division until, having run out of ammunition, they were forced to surrender. Nicknamed ‘The Weekend Trippers’ because they had only been there for a few days, the next five years were definitely not funny as Ted found himself part of the huge slave labour force in Poland under the administration of Stalag XXA and Stalag XXB. Life in the POW camps bore little resemblance to the cheerful films of the 1950s and time spent in Majdanek Concentration Camp and a Polish salt mine were things Ted buried deep in his subconscious and never spoke about.

The Weekend Trippers was based on Ted’s diaries written at the time and is published by Bank House Books. It can be ordered in advance from www.bankhousebooks.com/books/forthcoming-titles and will be on sale generally from late October 2011. 75% of the author royalties from each book sold will be going to the Rifles Benevolent Trust.