The Colditz Cock

When I was a child and all my friends were playing Monopoly – a truly awful game whose popularity mystifies me to this day – I instead used to practice escaping from prison. I’d bribe sentries, acquire skeleton keys, forged passes, wire cutters and lengths of rope, and when I had all I needed, false papers, maps, compass and disguise included, I’d make a break for it, sometimes hopping over walls, sometimes burrowing through tunnels.

If I was very lucky I might even nick a car and simply drive out the front gate, but that didn’t happen most of the time. Most of the time I got shot.

And I hope I’m not disappointing too many of you when I reveal that this too was a board game called ‘Escape from Colditz’ and I play it to this day. The game is interminable, which is great, but it does have a weakness. This is that all players bar one get to control the escaping prisoners of war of an allied nation, be they British, American, French, Dutch or Poles.