Samuel Arun Masilamoni

Watched this in Gokomere, Zimbabwe in 1983. I was 11 and my brother 9. Gokomere was a huge mission campus and houses were far between. This series aired late at night. So you can understand how much this scared us in those silent hours. We would not even lift a curtain for fear of finding the Child of Vodyanoy standing outside the window, waiting. That implacable creature appeared in our dreams and we would wake screaming for months after. We could only sleep again when we snuggled between Dad and Mum.

Special book. Convincingly captures the thoughts, feelings and trauma of Rambeau. You can read and feel how Rambeau recognises the immaturity of the police, all of whom want to claim the glory of outsmarting a Special Forces veteran, and tries to outsmart them without harming them. But they push too far, trying to murder him and he mentally retreats into survive-and-destroy mode. He is wracked by guilt throughout but his animal survival instinct, allied to his commando training, ensures that he deliberately plans and builds traps to hamstring his attackers.

I learnt of this evil incident in cricket history only when I was 12, through Bodyline. I thought Winston Churchill was England captain. He was ready to kill for the Ashes. Don Bradman fought till the last drop of blood that Larwood wanted. The Australians were decent. The British cheated as usual.