Life in the 1950s Midlands town still reflects the austerity of the immediate post-war period. But amid the greyness there's the promise of better things to come. Change is waiting round the corner.

As the decade draws to a close, our eleven-year-old is finding it hard to adjust to the brutality of his new school. Yet as he negotiates the transition from short trousers to long, his interests are also changing from football and music to music, football and girls (“but not necessarily in that order”). He's starting his journey through that culturally explosive decade of the Sixties, the very best time to live your teenage years.

Told with humour and candour, these quirky anecdotal snapshots of the author's earlier life take us through the highs, the lows and the mundane of his first twenty years. The miseries, fears and misconceptions of a young life are countered with moments of wonder, sheer joy and just plain silliness. At times wistful, even poignant, they are never self-indulgent. They provide glimpses into the spirit and conditions of those rapidly changing times of more than half a century ago.