This evocative picture of a lost London and a vanished culture is also the story of a bookish boy discovering his own path. John Gross, the former editor of the <i>Times Literary Supplement</i>, is the son of a Jewish doctor who practiced in the East End of London from the 1920s to World War II and beyond. "Remarkably readable and entertaining."-Antonia Fraser. "A very beautiful and valuable book."- Oliver Sacks.