Adopted by an African tribe, shipwrecked on a tropical island -- Tony Bell's life has been truly eventful. He spoke to JENNY SCOTT. . .

A THIRTY year career with the Foreign Office has taken Burnley man Tony Bell to some exciting places.

But it was only after he'd retired that he embarked on the most gruelling adventure of his life.

For Tony, 65, found himself, alone and stranded, on a tiny Fijian island for 11 months. He said: "It might sound romantic and idealistic -- being shipwrecked on an island -- but it wasn't. It was sheer, sheer survival."

In April 1991 Tony, then living in Australia, and a friend set sail in a converted fishing boat to cruise the Pacific.

Caught in a storm, Tony's 40ft sailing boat, Clovis, capsized and the two masts snapped off. His sailing companion died in the catastrophe and Tony drifted on to the island in a life raft.

There he existed on a diet of coconuts and fish and eggs, with no human contact.

"When you are in basic survival mode, what you need is food, water, shelter and somewhere to sleep," he said. "After that, you look for company.

"I carved the face of a woman on a piece of wood and I used to talk to her."

If Tony's story has a familiar ring to it, that's because it was later picked up by Dreamworks, the Hollywood production company behind the Tom Hanks film Cast Away, and parts of it used in the film -- for instance when Tom's character begins conversing with a basketball he names Wilson.

By the end of his time on the island, Tony had learned how to use the lenses of his glasses to start a fire and how to catch rainwater and use fish traps.

He was eventually rescued by two French doctors, who were cruising round the area on a yacht.

"I have no idea how I looked at that moment," he said. "I was naked -- my clothes had rotted and fallen apart.

"My legs were peeling and I had a long, straggly beard.

"I tried to swim out to them, but I was so weak, I didn't have the strength. Thank God they were doctors! I was taken to an island called Sauva, in Fiji, after I was rescued. I was very ill. My weight had dropped to 6st 3lb.

"They shipped me off to New Zealand for hospital treatment. Everybody thought I was dead -- including my wife, who had since moved in with another man. I can't blame her. In total, I'd been missing for 15 months."

Back in Australia, Tony's story hit the headlines, keen though he was to play it down.

Les Johnson, a friend of Tony's from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, said: "Tony's a real character. There's one or two who stand out and he's one of them."

Upon eventually seeing the film Cast Away, Tony was very disappointed.

"It wasn't anything like what I had written. They altered it for the American market. They took a lot of my ideas but they also invented their own."

The rest of Tony's life story is equally extraordinary.

His parents died during World War Two and, at the age of five, he left his Burnley home and travelled to his uncle's farm on the Zimbabwe/Namibia border.

Originally in the charge of a nun -- Sister Pachal -- who died during the journey, he reached the farm to find things were not as expected.

"When I reached the farm I found my Uncle Peter had come to England to join the Air Force," he said.

Fortunately for Tony, the farm had been left in the charge of the local tribespeople.

He said: "I became part of the tribal culture. My adopted mother was called Umba. She had lost her own child, so she took me on.

"I had a very good friend called Onga who grew up alongside me in the village. I have been back to see him, but Umba died a few years back."

Tony's childhood in Africa lasted until 1949, when he was discovered by the authorities and brought back to England. His uncle had died in the war and, with no relatives to look after him, he was put into a home near Stockport.

"It was terrible," he said. "I had to wear shoes and clothes and there was no freedom. I used to run away into the hills."

A Government policy in the 1950s of shipping orphans out to Australia proved to be Tony's salvation. At the age of 11 he and five other children were sent to a work station about 650 miles north of Perth.

"I loved it," said Tony. "I refound freedom. I got an education through reading and exploring. I learned independence."

At the age of 17 Tony did his A-levels and went to the Western Australian University to study social sciences.

But it was while studying some of the native languages back in Africa for his post graduate degree that Tony got his first career break.

The UN General Secretary, Dag Hammarskjld, died in an air crash in Zaire in 1961 and Tony happened to be the only bilingual person on the scene.

Having already done some work for a news agency in Johannesburg, he was the obvious person to report on the accident.

"I had a radio and I could speak English and read and write," he said. "I got a light aircraft out to the scene and got the pictures and the story.

"The cheque I got was more money than I had ever had in my life."

It was his work as a freelance photo journalist for international news agencies like Reuters that saw Tony recruited by the Foreign Office.

"Being a journalist is an acceptable means of being in the Foreign Office," he said. "You have a legitimate reason for being in a foreign country. The adventure was marvellous. I covered the war in Vietnam from 1972 to 1974 in the closing stages. It was pretty obvious the North Vietnamese could not be suppressed. I witnessed the bombing of innocent women and children. I often used to cry myself to sleep."

After travelling the world with the Foreign Office, Tony settled in Australia, working as a broadcaster and writer. He scripted documentaries, including one which charted the lives of Australia's flying doctor service.

His broadcasting work has continued since he returned to England, following the shipwreck tragedy and the collapse of his marriage.

He was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 about his African childhood and made a programme called Owt and Nowt for BBC Radio Lancashire, which was broadcast last year. He has also written four books and says he feels relatively settled.

"After I retired in 1992 I came looking for my family tree in Burnley," he said. "I discovered I had a possible half brother in Spain and I found some distant relatives here in Burnley. That's the closest thing I can get to family."

Meanwhile, Tony's other "family" -- the African tribespeople -- have benefited from the money he made from selling his story to Dreamworks. He refuses to specify the amount, but says it has been enough to build a school, a church and a clinic.

Burnley, however, remains his home.

"I have probably been more settled here for the last six or seven years than I have been anywhere else in my life, apart from those years I spent in Africa. It's nice to have a sense of belonging."