David Gurr returns with a witty and touching memoir of a boyhood in British Columbia.

Best known for his spy thrillers, here Gurr recalls his own youth in vivid prose. First, an unusual World War II boyhood in rural England, under the care of two aristocratic Victorian aunts who seem to have stepped out of a Trollope novel. Then, in 1948, he is relocated to the bush on Vancouver Island with his mother and father. The Island, in the 1950s, presents a hardscrabble life in a crowded cottage with a wood stove. On the surface, it’s an ideal setting for a restless adolescent hungry for adventure, but hovering over it all, unseen but not unfelt, is a dark family secret guarded closely by the author’s parents. Gurr tells the story of his topsy-turvy early life with great panache, an exceptional memory for colourful detail, and a wry sense of humour.