• In the early days, expect to be moved around a lot. Remember that location switches are one of the few opportunities for escape.

• After a while, the disruption will die down and you’ll sense you’ve reached your final destination. If you haven’t had a chance to escape, a sense of disbelief at your confinement is likely to set in.

• Once the reality of your situation has sunk in, your next emotion is likely to be fear in the face of the unknown.

• You need to regain a sense of control. Making a mental note of the number, names, physical description, accents, habits, and power structure of your captors will help.

• Keep a sense of time. If you can’t see daylight, keep track of temperature changes that might help you distinguish day from night.

• Establish mental and physical routines. Be calm and think positively. If they’d wanted to kill you, they probably would have done it by now.

• If there are other hostages, try to communicate with them – communication helps overcome feelings of isolation. Roy Hallums ignored death threats to whisper to a fellow hostage at night. If you’re in different cells, use Morse code or even one tap for “A”, two for “B”, three for “C”, etc.

• Try to get hold of some essentials. A simple thing like a blanket will make a vast difference to your comfort.

• Coping strategies like these will help, but the reality is that you have to be ready for long periods of boredom and isolation punctuated by extreme moments of threatened and actual violence.

• Terry Waite kept his spirits up throughout his captivity by repeating these three phrases to himself: i) “No regrets - there might have been something you could have done differently to avoid capture but that’s little help now.” ii) “No self pity - no matter what your situation, there’s always somebody worse off than you.” iii) “No over-sentimentality - don’t look back and wish you’d spent more time with your family or had longer holidays. Life has been lived, you cannot re-live it.”

• If you are held captive for a long time, opinions vary on whether you should try to speak to your captor. The advantage is that you get them to see you as a human being and not just as the enemy. You could try to start a conversation with them about family, sports or any other universal and non-controversial topic.

• However, not all experts think this is a good idea. Tom Clayton of Security Consulting says he has successfully negotiated three to four hundred releases, and his advice is, “Keep your mouth shut. Put up with it. If you give them any problems, they’ll kill you.”

• All experts agree that if questioned, you should only volunteer small amounts of useful information.

• If you’re in a group, unless you’re feeling heroic, or you’re the leader of the captured group, keep a low profile. The ‘grey’ member is the least noticeable and thus the least likely to be singled out for questioning - or worse.

• If they want you to appear in a video denouncing Western capitalism or are pressing you to convert to their faith, you’re dealing with people motivated by religion and not money. This makes your situation precarious: you’re no longer a commodity to be bartered with but a living incarnation of the enemy. Kelly McCann, vice president of the risk consultancy Kroll, advises against conversion. He believes that by showing you have your own set of beliefs, the kidnappers will respect you more as an individual. Whether to resist or not is a personal matter but most people are willing to say anything if it will keep them alive.