![St Elmo's Fire by [Cassaday, James]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51kJUiJaQYL._SY346_.jpg)
About the Author
Born in 1934, the author had a narrow escape from an early death during World War II when a German bomb intended for Portsmouth dockyard destroyed his family home in nearby Gosport. James has long felt that this influenced him more than the bomb-aimer had intended, for his subsequent choice of career after leaving school had a strong leaning towards protecting life and properly. After a brief spell as a boy seaman in the Merchant Navy, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and became a coxswain in the Marine Craft Section, the peacetime equivalent of Air Sea Rescue. This was followed by his main career in the Fire Service which spread itself over thirty-five years and gained him The Liverpool Shipwreck and Humane Society Award for saving life; and the award of the Queen's Fire Service Medal for distinguished service. James retired holding the rank of Chief Fire Officer. He lives close to the south coast of Guernsey, where an earlier love of sailing has now largely given way to writing, and gardening. But the sea is always in view, and it reflects in his writing.
