Happiness and good cheer leap from the pages of this heart-warming memoir of a young girl living in an extended family in 1940s and '50s Birmingham. As Muriel Bridgewater herself says, 'My sisters and I grew up in very austere times, but that made high days and holidays doubly valuable ... by sharing celebrations with one another it was possible to overcome the hardships of war, rationing and poverty.' 'Dad' was away much of the time, so Muriel and her siblings had to make their own entertainments: homespun games in the special 'house' at the end of the garden, birthday tea parties and, of course, flying off the shed roof. Where did it all go, this camaraderie and spirit of sharing? The author's view is that television, cars and holidays abroad changed family life for ever. Her own recollections are cheerful ones however, as she takes a delightful and detailed look back at an England that was less comfortable, less prosperous - and in many ways less selfish. Muriel Bridgewater was born in Birmingham and educated at King Edward's Grammar School, Handsworth, where she won the School Literary Prize. After raising her family, Muriel worked for twenty years as an advocate for disadvantaged children. She now lives in a village in Staffordshire.