John Wilcox has written seven novels of historical adventure and two books of non-fiction. Now, however, he tells the story of how he grew up as a maths-hating boy in the back streets of Birmingham during the war, dodging the German bombs but pledging his undying love for an iconic Betty Grable, and then succeeding as a journalist and businessman before surviving the greatest tragedy of his life. It's a tale that gives insight to the war years and to the growth of a great industrial city - but it is also one of love, humour and of personal struggle. Wilcox still can't do sums, but he can write. This is not so much a memoir, more a warm, personal retrospective of an eventful period in Britain's history.