Spain's civil war is remembered as an idealistic crusade by Europe's middle classes to defend the fledgling people's republic from nationalist tyranny.

Writers, actors and intellectuals took up the arms as members of the International Brigade to stand shoulder to shoulder with the common man.

After their gallant defeat in 1939 they returned home to pen the memoirs and novels which shaped the collective memory of the conflict which was, both idealistically and materially, a precursor to the Second World War in microcosm.

In fact, most of the International Brigade volunteers were not motivated to join by middle-class idealism but to escape the despair of life at home.

David Hooper, of Fryent Way, Kingsbury, was one of the few surviving members of the International Brigade.

His memoirs of the war - No Pasaran! - paint a very different and, following the recent controversy surrounding Laurie Lee's version, probably more reliable account of events.

Born in 1913, he was the son of a poor mining family in the Rhondda Valley and worked in the pits from the age of 14.

His family then moved to Telford Road, West Hendon, and he worked at the De Havilland aircraft factory in Stag Lane, Kingsbury.

"I had just lost my dole money and been put on the means test. I found that on 35 shillings a week, life was hard," explained Mr Hooper. "Then my wife and I split up and she took my children up north to her mother. I was desolate, my home was shattered and I was sick in body and soul."

With little to live for, a chance meeting with a friend who was going to join the International Brigade was the only spur Mr Hooper needed to head for Spain.

"When I was told I would get £3 a week if I went to Spain I wasn't thinking about myself but my kin. That's why I went."

His war is punctuated by immense bravery, affection of the people he was fighting for, double dealing of international politicians and commanders driven more by self interest and promotion than concern for their men.

But it is not primarily a memoir of a war - the 1936 battle at Jarama in which Mr Hopper was one of just 22 survivors from a 1,500 strong company is recalled in just a few sentences. Instead, Mr Hopper explores the camaraderie between the men and their relationship with the civilians.

At the end of the war Mr Hooper fled Spain in the bilge of a ship and returned to a country itself preparing for conflict.

Many years later he returned to Spain to discover he was heir to a fortune in gold and jewels which had been captured and hidden by the International Brigade.

But he took none, giving his share to a woman he had first met as a little orphan at the start of his time in Spain. Because of a casual act of generosity by Mr Hooper she believed he was her father.

No Pasaran! A Memoir of The Spanish Civil War by David Hooper (ISBN 1-86033-281-1) is published by Avon Books.