This autobiography by John Gale (1925-1974)evokes forty years of English life. From school at Stowe, to the Coldstream Guards (where he danced drunkenly with the young Princess Elizabeth at Windsor Castle) to marriage, his early years seem untroubled by darker shadows. John Gale's Squadron Commander described him as "a clean young Englishman, God help us. I can see your happy home: welcomes, a spaniel, an old nanny, and a faithful retainer in a green baize coat. You make me sick". But later, as a foreign correspondent in Algeria, Egypt and the Far East, he witnessed scenes of such horror that his comfortable world was shaken to its very foundations. Alan Ross was a former colleague of Gale's and editor of "London Magazine".