‘The prefect antidote to the ‘misery memior’.’ — The Judges, Costa Book Award 2006 for Biography

Mum and Dad – Squibs and Bert – were a complete mystery to Brian Thompson, as he grew up in Cambridge and London during the 1940s. His mother danced with the Yanks all night and slept under a fake fur coat all day, and when his father bothered to come home, he resolutely discouraged Brian in everything. Whilst other children were evacuated out of the big cities, Brian found himself travelling into London, and spent much of the war with an eccentric crowd of ribald relations.