<DIV><p>A remarkable, truthful and vivid recollection of childhood, from the author of <i>Stet</i>, <i>After a Funeral</i>, <i>Don't Look at Me Like That</i> and <i>Instead of a Letter</i>. Here Athill goes back to the beginning in a sharp evocation of a childhood unfashionably filled with happiness - a Norfolk country house, servants, the pleasures of horses, the unfolding secrets of adults and sex. This is England in the 1920s seen (with a clear and unsentimental eye) from the vantage point of England in 2001. It was a privileged and loving life: but did it equip the author to be happy?</p></DIV>