S T Haymon, now a crime novelist recreates in humorous, unsentimental crystal clear prose, the world of the Fenners, the world of pre-war poverty swept away by the welfare state. It is both a memory of childhood and a portrait of East Anglian rural life. Seen through the Childs and the adults eye, the Fenners emerged as an altogether memorable family, outclassed only by their even more flamboyant neighbour, the insouciant and mysterious chicken.