TheSunday TimesTop Ten Bestseller, winner of the Costa Biography Award

Keggie Carew grew up under the spell of an unorthodox, enigmatic father. An undercover guerrilla agent during the Second World War, in peacetime he lived on his wits and dazzling charm. But these were not always enough to sustain a family.

As his memory began to fail, Keggie embarked on a quest to unravel his story once and for all.Dadlandis that journey. It takes us into shadowy corners of history, a madcap English childhood, the poignant breakdown of a family, the corridors of dementia and beyond.

OH THIS BOOK. Beautiful and fierce and brave. Memory and war and family and loss and, well, wow Helen Macdonald, author ofH is for Hawk

'A thrilling history of Churchill's Special Operations Executive... combined ingeniously with a tender, moving, funny portrait of the authors father' Nick Hornby,Observer

Keggie Carewhas lived in London, West Cork, Barcelona, Texas and New Zealand. Before writing, her career was in contemporary art. She lives near Salisbury.

Tom Carewwas born in Dublin in 1919. He served in the Jedburgh unit of the Special Operations Executive in the Second World War. TheTimes of Indiacalled him Lawrence of Burma and the Mad Irishman. He married three times, and had four children. He died in 2009.