a Delight'' - Spectator''an Entrancing Memoir'' - Jane Shilling, New Statesman''a Wonderful Journey Beautifully Told, And Like All Great Memoirs, Remains With The Reader Like The Echo Of Friendship'' - Independent On Sundaythe New Memoir From The Author Of Maidens'' Trip And The Great Western Beach; A Remarkable Story Of A Young Woman Growing Up Against The Backdrop Of The Second World War, And Postwar Life In India, Paris And Bohemian Chelseauprooted From Her Beloved Great Western Beach, Emma Smith Moves With Her Family From Newquay To The Devonshire Village Of Crapstone. But The Dust Has Hardly Settled When Tragedy Strikes, And Emmas Father, A Dso-decorated Hero Of The Great War, Is So Frustrated By The Hardship Of Life As A Lowly Bank Clerk And By His Thwarted Artistic Ambitions That He Suffers A Catastrophic Breakdown - From Which Disaster Emma''s Resourceful Mother Rallies Courageously. Then, In 1939, The War Again Becomes A Reality.