Growing Up in Sussex: From Schoolboy to Soldier

This compelling memoir starts with a boy's journey through the years of the 1930s-days of the rag and bone man, streer lamplighters, Hercule Poirot, and in the background, Hitler. Then life gets real, at school where cane and cricket bat rule, where the mustard sandwich fills a hungry corner, and even motr real with army call-up, bullshit and training.

In 1944/45 comes the crunch of combat in Operation Overlord-a boy's growing-up time. And after all that, with his ears still ringin a bit, comes the blessed call of demob and a taste of new delights, finding a woman daft enough to marry him before settling near his work on a farm his life as a man.

In this nostalgic book evoking recollections of childhood and wartime in Sussex, the memories are the author's, however the sights and events are those that will be remembered by many others, and readers will warm to the narrator, who has found the perfect balance of humour and sensitivity.