This memoir by Sir Charles Kao (b. 1933) with an addendum by his wife Gwen, traces the high achieving life of the father of fibre optics in even tones. He describes his early life in Shanghai and Hong Kong and then his higher education at Woolwich Polytechnic in London and in I.T.T. research. His work in fibre optics and glass took him with his wife and children to the USA, Hong Kong and UK and from 1987 to 2009 as Vice Chancellor of the Chinese University. His notable career was crowned, although his health was by then failing, by the 2009 award of the Nobel Prize for Physics. With archival and family photographs.