Joan has been blind from birth. She has always been able to see light and shade and some colours. She thinks that her lack of sight has been compensated for by her memory. She remembers things far earlier than is usual. The lack of distraction of sight has given her brain a better chance to assemble her memories.

A Green Hill Far Away is a collection of Joan's earlier memoirs, a delightful and poignant mix harking back to the latter days of the war years. Never self-pitying, the stories have elements that will draw a smile or a tear and sometimes a full belly-laugh.

While they searched for bright redcurrants, I saw the golden dandelions shining in the sun. When they reached up for the runner beans, I gazed up at the bright white summer sky. They saw only red tomatoes. I saw the green spiders on the top. Grown-ups never bothered to see the things more lovely, like the shape of the chrysanthemum leaves with their rows of crocodile teeth, or the blue haze of the bonfire smoke, drifting over the garden, like I tried to see. And then they said that I was blind!