​

​

'An extraordinary story of faith, of medical affairs, and of the Royal Navy in wartime.' Captain Peter Hore RN, naval historian.

 

Extraordinary times require ordinary people.

 

The story of surgeon Paul Houghton brings the past to life as we hear, in his own voice, the sights, smell and roar of sea battle on a warship in the Second World War.

One of the colourful characters of the Malta convoys, his life spanned most of the turbulent twentieth century. He knew two world wars and saw surgery transformed by medical revolutions such as the discovery of antibiotics. His son, Mark, paints an intimate portrait of a bold, yet shy man who struggled to put his faith into practice - clumsy at home yet almost miraculous with a scalpel.

Through Fire and Water by Mark Houghton is the biography of a young man with a flaming temper changed to become the Royal Navy's first Fleet Surgeon and then a founding consultant for the NHS in Worcester, UK. Discover the roots of Paul's resilience in both war and peace in this thrilling memoir of an extraordinary but ordinary life.