This is a memoir of childhood in the Cotswolds in the 1950s and early 60s. Its focus is Stroud (especially Rodborough) and (in the book's last section) Gloucester, but it has a wider interest as social history.

It presents a picture of a world very different to today's - its social conditions, the slowly vanishing culture (and in particular dialect) of the Stroud Valleys, the significant contrast between education in the country and in the city, and a wealth of sometimes humorous, often earthy characters. To this there is the counterpoint of a spreading post-war culture formed by tv programmes and pop music.