In this brave, powerful, beautifully written memoir, Rose Handleigh-Adams evokes her earliest years growing up in north-west London with a clear and unsentimental eye. A child of the Blitz, Rose s youngest days are shaped by the iconic experiences of wartime and post-war Britain evacuation, grinding poverty and the seemingly endless years of rationing. But she also faces other, more unconventional challenges in the form of her eccentric and unpredictable family a father at once loving and violent, a half-mad uncle who wears all his clothes at the same time, and a glamorous grandmother who is part fairy godmother and part spiteful witch. Only the warmth and support of her long-suffering mother, it seems, can provide Rose with her desire for stability and unconditional love. As Rose enters her teenage years, there are other, even darker clouds on the horizon. Her blossoming body and good looks attract the attention of older men, and she is prematurely drawn into a painful world of sexual betrayal, heartache andbureaucratic cruelty. As her father is constantly reminding her, no good will ever come of her.