September 1940. A four-year-old London boy gazes at a night sky lit by burning London. Eighty years later, in another emergency and a hugely changed world, the same lad is persuaded to write about his ordinary life that has occasionally been quite extra-ordinary.

Vividly described with much laughter, wit and occasional trenchancy is a rewarding career in education, great pleasure in the arts and in sport and all in a world that has now passed into history. In addition, with often moving directness, the author reveals his home life which over eight decades has provided a joyful safe haven for his forays into the world.