The Time of the Corncrake is about the author's life as he grew up from boy to man in the austere conditions that existed in Ireland in the 1940s and 1950s. Although it is a serious, informative, and sometimes sad account of growing up in a small Irish town, it is also full of humour. He tells in great detail of his schooldays, his teenage years, and his inevitable migration to England. He also writes from an Irish perspective, of his time in the Royal Air Force, and of his first year in his chosen career, the London Fire Brigade.