Jack Laurence

From reading your book, which again is amazing, would it be fair to say that you had quite a tumultuous upbringing to say the least?

Yeah.

I mean, you actually say in the book, from the age of 12 onward, you hated every single day of your life.

You know, you also talk about at one point, did you get taken in by a family who were adopting sort of kids from all sorts of backgrounds?

So can you explain that whole foster parent situation for us?

I mean, because, you know, obviously most people who get fostered by other parents means that they don't have parents, but you did still have your mother.

I mean, you say in your book, it was the first time in a while that you actually felt normal.

You're a bit more controlled than normal.

Yeah.

As Jim grew up, he says that he was afraid of everything and he wanted to not only confront his fears, but overcome them.

And how do you do that?

Well, by joining the French Foreign Legion, of course.

Jim, that's one hell of a bandage ripoff to go from being afraid of everything to thinking, oh, I'll go and become a legionnaire.

But overcoming his fears wasn't the only driving factor to head off and join an army stooped in history.

He was also escaping the Danish weather.

It was horrible.

So a young Jim is off on a new adventure, set on conquering his fears of the world around him.

Signing up for the Legionnaires in Paris, he soon heads off to the south of France.

At that time, 300 men would apply each week, with only 30 being chosen.

Jim was one of those 30 and was soon thrown into a rigorous training course for four months, which he says taught him some extremely valuable lessons.