PETER CROFT was born in Edinburgh in 1947 and grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk. After leaving Felixstowe Grammar School he became a Clerical Officer in the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance. On leaving the Civil Service he had a spell driving buses for Ipswich Borough Transport. He then took a course in American Studies at the University of Manchester in 1978 and gained a B.A. (Hons) Degree. He took up the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language, firstly in Cambridge, then working in Italy, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. He took a break from teaching in 1999 to begin research on morale in R.A.F. Bomber Command for an M.Sc. in Second World War Studies at the University of Edinburgh. In 2000, after gaining his degree, he resumed teaching, taking up posts in Qatar, Libya, Angola and Iraq. In 2013 he retired to the city of his birth, where he still lives.