A rgentina was never a placid sort of place.

But my father, Ronald Grove, was well used to its turbulent ways. At64, he had lived in Buenos Aires for over a quarter of a century, as head of the Vestey family's huge meat-packing business.

So he was not unduly concerned when a visit by ex-President Perón early in 1972, after a €ƒ-year exile in Madrid, stirred up a surge of activity by left-wing urban guerrilla groups.

He did know he might be on their hit list, especially as he'd recently had to lay off hundreds of workers. Even so, back in London, where I was a leader-writer on the , I was startled when my father offhandedly mentioned that he was now varying his route to work and had a weekday