This moving, thoughtful, wry book is memoir, social history, and elegy for an almost forgotten world. It looks steadily and honestly at the varied texture of that world, from gutting fish off Iceland to working on the buses, from having formal high tea with the Great Aunts to delivering meat on a bicycle, from sharp memories of a fifty-in-a-class primary school to trying for a scholarship to Cambridge University – and leaving that lost world for ever.
“A compelling memoir…fascinating.”
Clive Wilmer
“A beautifully observed portrait of a lost world…a voice that is wise, engaging, and humane.”
Dr Fred Parker
“…a tender elegy for a vanished England and a moving evocation of boyhood…”
S. J. Parris
“…an enthralling book about the magic of the ordinary, the author’s recalling of his young life in a world so close to and so different from ours. It’s wise, and funny, and sad, and beautifully written.”
Professor Helen Cooper
“Writing that matters, about what matters – the mystery of our being human.”
Nicole Jouve Ward
“A compelling memoir…fascinating.”
Clive Wilmer
“A beautifully observed portrait of a lost world…a voice that is wise, engaging, and humane.”
Dr Fred Parker
“…a tender elegy for a vanished England and a moving evocation of boyhood…”
S. J. Parris
“…an enthralling book about the magic of the ordinary, the author’s recalling of his young life in a world so close to and so different from ours. It’s wise, and funny, and sad, and beautifully written.”
Professor Helen Cooper
“Writing that matters, about what matters – the mystery of our being human.”
Nicole Jouve Ward
