My top 10 highlights from the book:

1. Invaders are always organized.

2. Every morning I would tell myself over and over: Survive this day. Survive this day. Survive this day.

3. On countless occasions I've seen two men with the same symptoms and same physical state and one will die and one will make it. I can only put that down to sheer willpower.

4. A lot of men were married and would talk about their families back home. These slightly older men in their thirties and forties seemed to survive in much greater numbers. It was the young men who died first.

5. To survive each day required maximum concentration.

6. I had decided to stay apart from everyone else and focus totally on surviving. I lived a day at a time in my own little world, a private cocoon.

7. How little could a human being survive on? I was about to find out.

8. I was reduced to a skeletal 82 lbs.

9. There was nothing to do but stand and wait it out. By now I could shut down my mind more easily than before and ignore terrible thoughts.

10. Remember, while it always seems darkest before the dawn, perseverance pays off and the good times will return.

Listen to #318 Alistair Urquhart (Listen to this when you're stressed)