In this entertaining memoir, Tom Eadie recalls his youthful experiences as a child growing up during the Second World War in the Nottinghamshire mining town of Worksop and as a young man seeking employment in the postwar years, culminating in a two-year stint as a National Service conscript, serving in Malaya with the 25th Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery, 1954-56.

Tom is an adept storyteller and his wry observations and comments regarding social conditions at home and the challenges of military service abroad convey a vivid impression of the life of a fairly typical young man of the time. As such, his experiences echo those of a generation who grew up in Britain the shadow of World War II, during a period of enforced national austerity and gradual social change in which a new social order began to be established – a process that would slowly gain momentum as the 1960s approached.

Tom’s personal encounters with the shifting tides of social change at home and the end of empire abroad provide an enlightening commentary that will be enjoyed equally by those who remember the era and those interested in learning something about it.