Charlie Loke’s memoir spans 80 years from the Japanese occupation of Malaya during World War II to the present Covid-19 pandemic in Britain. It tells the story of how a boy from a far off tropical island in the Andaman Sea became a don in Cambridge University and began a life in scientific research.

Y.W. (Charlie) Loke was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He spent his early childhood in Penang, an island off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. After boarding school in England, he graduated from Cambridge University (MA) and holds doctorates in both Medicine (MD) and Science (ScD). He is Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG) in recognition of the contributions his research has made to these clinical specialties. He is Professor Emeritus of Reproductive Immunology at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of King’s College Cambridge. He presently lives in Cambridge but retains a home in Malaysia where he hopes to return one day.