Hi girls - in answer to some above posts I have managed to find the e-mail I received from the author and I hope it wont spoil it for anyone now if I post it here:-

> Hi Vicky
> Thank you for your kind words. Actually we know very few details of
> my grandfather, only what I say in the epilogue. We didn't know which
> camp he was in, which battle he was captured in, or which route he
> took. He died in 1938 only my uncle who was 13 remembered this story
> in its outline. There were no letters, no Kiraly, no specific
> episodes that we knew of. All of that I invented based on research of
> the period. All we know is that he escaped a Siberian POW camp (and
> there were many) and that he walked for 3 years and of course that
> the love of his life, Lotte,was waiting for him.
> Best
> Danny Scheinmann
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I thought this might interest everyone who has read the book
Vicks
xx